


All Good Things

by pechebaie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Growing Up, Insecurities, M/M, Multi, ill update tags as this goes along, the OCs r all Semi's upperclassmen & his family bc like. kinda need those lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-06-21 08:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15553377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pechebaie/pseuds/pechebaie
Summary: Semi does not expect his two best friends to be a part of a rival high school volleyball team. He doesn't expect to fall in love with them, either.The only thing that really turns out the way he expected is the fact that they're there for each other through everything.or, An alternate viewpoint on the rivalry between Shiratorizawa and Aoba Johsai, in which Semi, Oikawa, and Iwaizumi are all best friends (and then some more)





	1. High School, Year 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my friends who I live-texted this to as I wrote it: I'm sorry this took so long to get out! I wrote 8k, didn't write for a month, then cranked out the last couple thousand words in two days or so. Whoops njdfjnfdsnj
> 
> To everyone else: This writing style is fairly different from how I usually write, because I wanted to take advantage of the fact that this is a character study and explore my writing style a little bit. The way characters are referred to changes with how Semi himself calls people, so that might read a little bit strangely. Sorry!
> 
> I'll hopefully have updates out every two weeks, and this story takes place over 7 years (and thus, 7 chapters). Please let me know if you catch any big mistakes! Thank you :*

Kanada-senpai lands badly and hurts his ankle. He’s pulled out of the game to go to the nurse’s office. Eita’s heart pounds deafeningly in his ears as he’s switched into the game.

It’s just a practice match, surprisingly enough with another high school, so it’s not a big deal - it  _ shouldn’t _ be a big deal; last year, Eita’s middle school almost went to nationals with him as the starting setter. But stepping onto a court full of second and third years (Ushijima-san is the only first year who made it on first string, but that’s not surprising), all of whom are expecting Eita to be able to set to them well enough to win the match, is terrifying.

Shibahara-senpai pats Eita on the shoulder and smiles at him as though he can see all of Eita’s anxieties (which, maybe he can). “You’ll be fine,” he says; Eita just nods and finds his place on the court in the front between Hashi-senpai and Ushijima-san.

Directly across from Eita, on the other side of the net, is Aoba Johsai’s starting setter. He’s a first year, one Eita remembers from watching other teams play in the tournament the year before. His hair looks windswept, and his eyes are a far nicer shade of brown than Eita’s own muddy ones, and even though he can’t be more than two centimetres taller than himself, Eita feels impossibly small beneath the weight of his gaze.

_ Oikawa Tooru _ , Eita’s memory supplies.

_ Beautiful, and terrifying _ , his own thoughts add.

The next point begins, and Eita does his best to focus on the ball Shibahara-senpai serves and not on the boy in front of him who can’t seem to stop glaring daggers at both Eita and Ushijima-san. (Actually, Eita notes as Oikawa-san’s glare flickers to his left and onto Hashi-senpai, he can’t seem to stop glaring daggers at the  _ whole team _ .)

And when the ball comes down moments later to rest for half of a heartbeat on Oikawa-san’s awaiting fingertips, Eita realises that Oikawa-san plays exactly how he looks.

He sets to the bulky wing spiker with black hair pulled into a tight bun, and the ball slams down, only to be saved by Togawa-senpai’s outstretched arms.

It’s a beautiful receive, an A-pass right to Eita. He has about two seconds before he has to make his final decision on who to set to, and time - familiarly - seems to slow down as Eita thinks.

Over the net, the spiker who’d just spiked Oikawa-san’s toss is still recovering from his landing; Oikawa-san himself is preparing to jump up to guard any possible spikes from Hashi-senpai, the other player currently on Aoba Johsai’s vanguard doing so as well.

Eita shouts, “Ushijima-san!” just as the ball touches his fingers.

Ushijima-san spikes the ball, and it’s just barely saved by a player with spiky black hair.

“Oikawa-”

And then Oikawa-san has the ball again, tossing it so that the same player as before can spike, and this time, not even Togawa-senpai can save it.

The opposing team lets out a cheer of celebration, and as Oikawa-san turns around to congratulate the spiker and receive praise of his own, his gaze lingers on Eita for a moment.  _ Nice try _ , his eyes seem to say, the corner of his mouth tilted up into a knowing smirk.

Eita wonders how long he had to practice to get such flowing movements in his tosses, or perhaps he’s a prodigy of some sort, as Eita had been regarded as in middle school. Whatever it is, there has to be  _ some _ reason that Oikawa-san is Aoba Johsai’s starting setter and the only first year-

The player with the spiky hair wacks Oikawa-san over the head and Oikawa-san slumps against his shoulder. He looks back at Eita and glares again, but it’s pouty this time.

Maybe not the only starting first year, then.

Eita stays in for the rest of the game, and Shiratorizawa wins (unsurprisingly). Shibahara-senpai gives Eita a high-five and says, “See? What’d I tell you? You did great.” Eita feels like he’s glowing.

Even though he played, Eita stays inside with the other boys on second-string to help clean up. It’s mindless, just tying up the net, putting the ball cart away, and wiping down the floor. With two teams worth of first and second years, it’s done in almost no time.

Which is perfect, because Eita feels like he should  _ say something _ to Oikawa-san, but he’s not sure what. Maybe… maybe Eita just wants to be friends?

Outside, it’s nearly dark, the sun already set but not quite enough where there isn’t any light to see by. Oikawa-san and the other first year starter from Aoba Johsai are standing off to the side, the spiker looking as though he’s chastising Oikawa-san, who looks like he isn’t listening.

Eita watches their familiar bickering for a moment, too nervous to approach them; they look like they’re close friends, and with the way Oikawa-san was glaring earlier, there’s no way he’d want to talk to Eita.

But then he sees Togawa-senpai sharing friendly words with the wing spiker from earlier, the one with the bun, and he decides that maybe, if he gives it a shot, Oikawa-san  _ will _ want to be friends. Maybe the glaring was just an intimidation tactic for on the court, or something?

So Eita takes a deep breath and lets it all out slowly, steels himself, and approaches Oikawa-san and the other first year.

Oikawa-san’s back is to Eita, and he’s saying something in an excited tone, and suddenly, Eita wishes he hadn’t come over. But then the other first year’s gaze flickers to him, and he says, “Oh, hello,” and Eita knows there’s no turning around, no going back to his team who he’s (albeit only a little) actually comfortable with without saying something back.

“Hello,” Eita says back, just as Oikawa-san turns around to face him.

“Oh,” Oikawa-san says, voice bland, all the excitement from earlier dried up. “It’s you.” He puts his hands on his hips and tilts up his chin, glares at Eita down his nose. “What, did you come over here just to brag because you won?” His voice is sour.

Eita blinks. “No? I, uhm-”

The other first year smacks the back of Oikawa-san’s head (and Eita’s sensing a bit of a theme here). “Stop being rude!”

Oikawa-san rubs the back of his head and whines. “Iwa-chan, ow!”

“That’s what you get for being an ass!” He turns back to Eita with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry about him, he’s just like this sometimes.” A pause. “All the time, actually.”

“Iwa-chan-!”

“Uhm, no, it’s okay.” Eita rubs at his wrist. “I shouldn’t have interrupted; I’m sorry.”

“You should be- OW! Iwa-chan, I didn’t even  _ do anything _ -”

“I’m Iwaizumi Hajime,” the first year (Iwaizumi-san) says, and extends his hand. “And this is Oikawa Tooru. We’re first years.”

Eita stares at his hand for a moment before taking it. “Semi Eita. Uh, me too. I’m a first year, I mean.”

Oikawa-san’s arms are crossed now, and he’s looking at Iwaizumi-san, seemingly betrayed; Iwaizumi-san ignores him.

“Is your setter okay?”

Eita looks over his shoulder to where Kanada-senpai and Hashi-senpai are chatting, Kanada-senpai sitting on the steps of the bus with his leg out, two bags of ice wrapped around his ankle. “He just has to rest it for a couple of weeks,” Eita says, turning back to face Iwaizumi-san. Oikawa-san has his arms wrapped around Iwaizumi-san’s arm and is hanging off of him, but Iwaizumi-san seems to be a master at ignoring his teammate because it doesn’t look like he cares. “He’ll be fine, though.”

“That’s good.”

Oikawa-san suddenly unlocks his knees and pulls Iwaizumi-san tumbling to the ground with him. “Iwa-chan shouldn’t be fraternising with the enemy.”

“Oikawa, I swear to God-!”

It’s kind of uncomfortable to be watching, Eita will admit, but it’s not… bad. Not really.

* * *

 

Eita fails an important maths test and skips volleyball practice to hide in his dorm room and wallow. His roommate, someone who Eita has yet to really talk to, even a month into the school year, is at practice, so he has the room to himself, which means that Eita can rip his test in half three times and shove it deep, deep down into their shared trash bin and cry the whole time without feeling even worse because somebody saw him.

He quite literally kicks off his shoes, each one hitting the wall with an identical  _ bang! _ , and then flops backwards onto his bed, frustrated tears still coming from his eyes in fat drops. Sometimes he just feels so fucking  _ stupid _ .

On the desk across the room, Eita’s phone buzzes.

Eita sits up and wipes his nose on his jacket sleeve, stares at the illuminated screen. The only time he gets notifications is when Shibahara-senpai texts the team group chat to remind everyone about practice, but the whole team is already  _ at _ practice, so who on Earth would be messaging him?

A whole two minutes pass by, and then the phone buzzes again, reminding Eita of the notification. On weak knees, Eita stands up and crosses the room.

INSTAGRAM 2m ago  
@OikawaSan has requested  
to follow you.

Eita stares.

And stares.

The only way Oikawa-san could have gotten his Instagram was through Iwaizumi-san, and he would have had to specifically ask for it. (Or gone through Iwaizumi-san’s following list, but that also would have been going for it specifically, which is out of character because, as far as Eita’s concerned, Oikawa-san hates him.)

He doesn’t know if this @OikawaSan is even the Oikawa-san that Eita knows. Maybe it’s someone else who just happens to have the same surname and also just so happened to have stumbled across Eita’s Instagram account… somehow.

Eita opens the notification, goes to @OikawaSan’s account, and-

Yep. It’s Oikawa Tooru.

His account is public, the most recent photo one of him putting up a peace sign while Iwaizumi-san, unamused, stares directly at the camera. The caption reads,  _ Iwa-chan’s always so grumpy… _ . The picture was posted two hours ago.

Most of the pictures are selfies are of Iwaizumi-san (or of both of them), but there are a few videos as well (one of the more recent ones a clip of a boy  with almost-pink hair pouring a bunch of hot sauce in a carton of milk and then passing it to Iwaizumi-san (who, amazingly, chugs the whole thing in a matter of seconds), and an older one of Oikawa-san from a year ago pretending to squish the head of a younger boy with black hair captioned  _ Smush _ ). Eita really isn’t sure how to feel about this.

He accepts the follow request anyway and follows Oikawa-san back.

A few minutes pass, Eita just staring at his phone and tapping his fingernails on the back. He knows it’s stupid to be waiting for something; Oikawa-san is probably at volleyball practice, or he didn’t  _ mean _ to try and follow Eita, or maybe he’s just doing it so he can make fun of Eita, or-

Eita’s thoughts are cut off when his phone buzzes with a notification.

INSTAGRAM now  
(sems): OikawaSan: hello!!  
(〃ω〃)

Eita blinks. Is that supposed to be a face?

Anxiety shuddering through his stomach, he opens the message to type a response.

**< sems>**

hello?

**< OikawaSan>**

OwO shouldnt you be at volleyball practice semi-san?

**< sems>**

shouldnt you?

Oikawa-san doesn’t respond after that. Eita spends about five more minutes waiting with his phone, just in case Oikawa-san  _ does _ decide to reply, but when nothing happens, he plugs his phone back into its charger and returns to his bed.

His stress from the failed test is gone now.

* * *

 

The next week is torture (although Eita wouldn’t dare say that to anyone). Shibahara-senpai is having everyone do extra practice on their serves in preparation for the interhigh, and while Eita is a wonderful setter, his serves are pretty lacking. It’s kind of embarrassing, really, to be this bad at serves.

_ Especially _ compared to his teammates.

Kanada-senpai hits a jump serve that lands perfectly  _ just _ inside the left corner of the other half of the court. He turns to Eita, who stands beside him clutching a ball tightly in his hands.

“Have you worked on jump serves yet?” Kanada-senpai asks.

Eita has not. They’re terrifying. His regular serves are mediocre as it is; attempting a jump serve would probably kill him on the spot.

He shakes his head.

“You should try one,” Kanada-senpai says, apparently oblivious to how much Eita does not want to do that (or perhaps he’s just ignoring the anxiety Eita’s sure is coming off of him in waves). Kanada-senpai takes another volleyball from the cart and backs up. “Here, I’ll talk you through it.”

Kanada-senpai tosses the ball, does his run-up, and serves, all while talking and (trying to) explain what and how he’s doing this. The ball hits the back left corner again with a solid  _ smack _ .

“Did that make sense?” Kanada-senpai asks once he’s landed and turned around to face Eita.

“Uh.” Eita fidgets. “Not really?”

“That’s okay!” Kanada-senpai is smiling, and Eita doesn’t know how he manages to keep such an upbeat attitude all of the time. “Try one, and we’ll work through it until you get it.”

Trying a jump serve and “working through it until he gets it” is the  _ last _ thing Eita wants to do, like,  _ ever _ , but he nods and takes a few steps back anyway.

Being away from the court to serve is normal, something Eita’s used to, so in theory, it shouldn’t feel so nerve-wracking to be this far back. But he’s jumping this time. He’s supposed to  _ jump _ to serve. Eita’s stomach flips, and he grinds his teeth.

At the edge of the court, Kanada-senpai is smiling encouragingly.

Eita thinks about the power behind Oikawa-san’s serves he’d seen at the practice match, and that alone is enough to tamper down his anxiety. He makes his toss, does his run-up, and jumps-

The serve hits the net.

Eita’s feet hit the ground and he stumbles, but catches his balance fairly quickly.

Kanada-senpai is still smiling encouragingly.

“Your form is really good!” he says, collects the ball and comes to stand in front of Eita. “We just need to work on your landings, and actually getting the ball onto the other side. But you’ve got power, too, so I can tell you’ll definitely get really good at these with some practice.”

Eita bites his lip and glances over his shoulder at where their second-string libero is passing a ball back and forth with Togawa-senpai. When he looks back at the smiling Kanada-senpai, he wishes they could be practicing something like  _ that _ instead.

And, geez,  _ how _ is he still smiling? Eita wonders what kind of upbringing Kanada-senpai must have had to make him to cheerful all of the time.

“Semi-kun?”

Eita blinks. “Uh, sorry, senpai; I spaced out for a moment there. What were you saying?”

Kanada-senpai just keeps smiling and goes back to talking about jump serves.

After practice, Shibahara-senpai pulls Eita aside and off campus.

(“I have to help clean up-”

“You can skip today; you’re my favourite kouhai, and I want to treat you to meat buns, okay?”)

They walk around town while the sun sets, Eita very slowly making his way through his pork bun (it’s hot, okay?). They’re mostly silent, Shibahara-senpai looking like he’s enjoying the outside air and extra exercise while Eita tries not to be so anxious about this. It’s just meat buns, and besides, it’s not like he’s very intimidated by Shibahara-senpai, who’s been nothing but soft-hearted and kind towards Eita all year.

They stop outside of a park, and Shibahara-senpai sits down on a bench, pats the space beside him for Eita to do the same.

“Are you okay?”

The question takes Eita by surprise. “Oh, uhm... Yeah, I’m fine.”

“With school, I mean.”

Shibahara-senpai isn’t pulling any punches here.

“It’s just that you’ve seemed really stressed lately, and you missed a couple of practices last week. I wanted to make sure you were doing alright?”

Eita picks at the beds of his nails. He hadn’t expected anyone to notice his absences. Even if he  _ is _ Shiratorizawa’s second-string setter, he usually just sticks with the other first years or Kanada-senpai during practice, so he didn’t think anyone would particularly mind-

Shibahara-senpai rests his hand on Eita’s knee, effectively pulling Eita out of his head. “You don’t have to be embarrassed,” he says. “I struggle with some of my classes, so it’s okay to be having a hard time with school; you don’t have to feel bad about it.”

Eita sighs through his nose. “I’m failing maths.”

“Oh,” Shibahara-senpai says, “is that it? Me or Ichirou could help you with that, if you wanted.” Then, “Maths is hard; you don’t have to feel bad if you don’t get it.”

“But I  _ do _ get it,” Eita says. “It’s just, when I have to take a test or something, I  _ forget _ everything.”

Shibahara-senpai doesn’t say anything for a long moment, then asks, “Do you have Mabuki-sensei?”

Eita nods.

“And he gives tests, like, every few days still?”

Again.

“God, I  _ hated him _ .” Eita looks up at Shibahara-senpai to find him staring straight ahead with a scowl on his face. “I didn’t even have him, but Hashi did, and he did so poorly in maths that he wasn’t allowed to come to practice until he got his grades up.”

“That’s pretty bad,” Eita says, and doesn’t know if he should be laughing or not.

“Yeah.” Shibahara-senpai turns back to Eita. “Some of us started, like, a maths study group to help him out, and we still do it. Honestly, I think that’s the only reason I’m any decent at it. Maybe you just need some extra reinforcement? You’re welcome to join us.”

Eita looks back down at his hands. “I’ll think about it,” he says. “Thank you for the offer, senpai.”

Shibahara-senpai ruffles his hair. “I told you, you’re my favourite,” he says, “so you don’t have to thank me.”

* * *

**< godzilla888>**

oikawa please stop sending volleyball memes  during class

it’s distracting

**< sems>**

idk it’s a good distraction

**< OikawaSan>**

see iwachan semi-kun likes them

**< sems>**

but im dumb so like.

i shouldnt be encouraging u either

**< godzilla888>**

see?????

**< OikawaSan>**

theyre funny tho…….

**< godzilla888>**

r they?

**< sems>**

fair

most of them r pretty stupid

**< OikawaSan>**

wow u 2 r so mean…..

i take valuable time out of my busy schedule  to find u volleyball memes

**< godzilla888>**

“busy schedule” lol nice joke

**< OikawaSan>**

and THIS is the thanks i get?

WOW RUDE!

**< sems>**

…………..

nice one iwaizumi-kun

**< godzilla888>**

thank u semi-kun i rly try

**< OikawaSan>**

im blocking both of u

* * *

 

**< OikawaSan>**

interhigh soon!!!

(ノ￣ー￣)ノ ● ⊥ ＼(^ω^＼)

**< godzilla888>**

whos that sposed 2 be

**< OikawaSan>**

me & u!

**< sems>**

wow u got your faces down perfectly

**< godzilla888>**

r u saying im grumpy

**< OikawaSan>**

but iwa-chan…….

you ARE grumpy…..

**< godzilla888>**

K.

**< sems>**

im sorry i didnt mean it come back

**< OikawaSan>**

o thank god hes gone

2 types of people

**< godzilla888>**

anyway….

semi-kun good luck at the tournament

**< sems>**

thanks iwaizumi-kun u too

i probly wont be playing tho

**< OikawaSan>**

nobodys gonna wish ME good luck?

**< godzilla888>**

no bye

**< OikawaSan>**

(;﹏;)

**< sems>**

is that supposed 2 be cute?

is that supposed 2 make us feel bad?

because if so

its not working

**< godzilla888>**

omg semi-kun……….

**< OikawaSan>**

i know i say this like everyday but im  blocking u both for real this time

* * *

 

Eita doesn’t play in the interhigh, but he watches.

When Shiratorizawa plays Aoba Johsai during the finals, he hopes the whole time that Washijou-sensei will switch him in, even if it’s just for a single point. It doesn’t happen, though, so Eita has to content himself with just watching from the sidelines.

Oikawa-kun switches out several times with Seijoh’s third year setter. Eita understands; it’d be almost impossible for him to play a whole five-set match as a first year, plus the third year setter has much more experience with the other players. Oikawa-kun still looks a little annoyed every time he gets called to the bench, though.

When he and Iwaizumi-kun aren’t on the court, they take turns making faces at Eita. Once, when Ushijima-kun’s spike gets saved by Seijoh’s libero, Oikawa-kun responds by pulling down one of his lower eyelids and sticking his tongue out at Eita; Eita has to grab onto Ejiri-kun’s sleeve to keep himself upright, he’s laughing so hard.

“What is so  _ funny? _ ” Ejiri-kun asks with a grin on his face, elbowing Eita lightly in the side.

“Seijoh’s setter is making faces,” Eita says, and tries to point Oikawa-kun out inconspicuously. Oikawa-kun (unfortunately) notices, and gives his most (mockingly) charming smile with an equally (mockingly) charming wave. He opens his mouth to say something, but Iwaizumi-kun wacks him on the back of the head.

Even if he can’t hear it out loud, Eita can hear Oikawa-kun’s “Iwa-chan!” in his head.

And when Shiratorizawa wins, Eita can’t even bring himself to look at his friends on Aoba Johsai. He’s happy - so,  _ so _ happy - that his team’s won and is going to nationals, but something in his chest feels sour and  _ wrong _ when he has friends on the team they just beat.

On the bus ride home (“I’m treating everyone to ramen tomorrow, you hear me?” Shibahara-senpai had declared as soon as they’d gotten onto the bus. “Tonight I’m way too tired, though; I’m gonna sleep for, like, four years.”) Eita sits next to Ejiri-kun and stares down at his darkened phone screen. He hopes Iwaizumi-kun and Oikawa-kun are feeling okay.

“Hey.” Ejiri-kun leans his head on Eita’s shoulder. “You don’t look like someone who’s volleyball team is going to Tokyo. Are you alright?”

“Tired,” Eita says, and when he turns his head and smiles, it’s genuine. “I know I didn’t play, but-”

“Cheering is exhausting,” Ejiri-kun cuts in. “I was out of the game more than I was in, but I feel like I played through the whole thing. So I get ya.” He stretches, and rests his arm along the back of Eita’s seat.

Eita’s phone buzzes in his hands.

INSTAGRAM now  
(sems): OikawaSan: were  
kicking your ass at the  
spring high

Eita opens his messages with a grin.

**< sems>**

o i dont doubt it

* * *

 

“ _ How’s Tokyo? _ ” Iwaizumi-kun’s voice is static through Eita’s phone.

“If’s fine,” Eita says around his toothbrush. He spits in the sink. “I played a full set in our match today and I feel like death, though.”

“ _ Nothing against you, but I hope you guys lose soon _ ,” Oikawa-kun says.

“ _ Oikawa, don’t be shitty _ .”

“ _ You said the same thing earlier! _ ”

“Not to his face!”

“It’s fine,” Eita interrupts. “I probably wouldn’t be rooting for a team who beat me, either.”

There’s silence on the line for a moment, then-

“ _ Shittykawa, did you start your essay yet? _ ”

“”Shittykawa”- _ Iwa-chan you’re so mean to me! _ ”

“ _ Did _ you start your essay, though?” Eita asks.

There’s silence.

“ _ I knew it; go do that now _ .”

“ _ Iwa-chan’s scary when he uses his mom voice _ …”

“ _ Oikawa. _ ”

“ _ Alright! I’m going!!!” _

More silence.

“ _ Good luck tomorrow Semi-kun okay bye _ .”

“ _ I’m sorry about him _ ,” Iwaizumi-kun says for probably the twelth time ever. “ _ He should have just said that outright _ .”

“It’s okay,” Eita says, also for probably the twelth time ever. Iwaizumi-kun apologises for Oikawa-kun a lot, and while Eita gets that, it’s really needless at this point; Oikawa-kun’s way of talking to people hasn’t bothered Eita since they became friends. Their private messages are just them teasing each other like that, anyway, and Oikawa-kun’s even slipped up and called him Semi-chan once before, so Eita doesn’t doubt the status of their friendship, especially not because of something dumb like Oikawa-kun not being up front about his feelings on a matter.

A moment of silence passes, and while it would normally be comfortable between them, it feels tense, for some reason.

Then Iwaizumi-kun speaks again, and Eita sees why.

“ _ Semi-kun… _ ”

“Hmm?” Eita hums, filling up a tiny paper cup with some mouthwash.

“ _ Do you know if anyone on your team is, like… gay? _ ”

Eita almost drops the bottle of mouthwash. “Uh,  _ sorry? _ ”

There’s a thump on Iwaizumi-kun’s end. “ _ Fuck! I’m sorry, that’s so rude… _ ”

There’s another beat of awkward silence before either of them speak again.

“I don’t know,” Eita says, “I’ve never asked. But I don’t see why it would matter?”

Iwaizumi-kun sighs, and it sounds heavy. “ _ Sorry, I’m just _ -” He cuts himself off.

“Are you gay?” Eita lifts his phone to his mouth and whispers the last word because Ushijima-kun is still in the washroom and Eita doesn’t want to deal with  _ questions _ later (even though he knows Ushijima-kun would never even think about asking that).

“ _ Fuck _ ,” Iwaizumi-kun says again, but it’s quieter this time. “ _ Maybe. I don’t know. _ ”

“Oh, okay. Cool.”

“ _ Cool… _ ” Iwaizumi-kun repeats. “ _ Okay _ .”

“Okay,” Eita says back.

“ _ Sorry if I made this weird _ .”

“You didn’t,” Eita says. “Maybe I am too?”

A pause.

_ “Are you? _ ”

“Who can say?” Eita pauses. “I mean… Probably.”

And, really, Eita probably  _ is _ . He’s never really had crushes on girls except when boys in his classes in middle school pressured him to, and he’s  _ definitely _ been, well,  _ noticing things _ about boys this past year.  _ Specifically _ noticing things about Shibahara-senpai, but Eita’s been trying extra hard not to think about that.

“Have you told Oikawa-kun?”

“ _ No _ .” Iwaizumi-kun doesn’t even hesitate to answer. “ _ I don’t- He can’t know. He’s not, like _ -” there’s another thump -  _ “- _ bad _ , or anything, he just- _ ” A pause. “ _ I’m scared _ .”

“I think that’s okay,” Eita says, and he dumps his cup of mouthwash down the sink because he’s alone in the room now, so what is the point, really, of using mouthwash? “I think that’s normal. I haven’t talked to anyone about it, so…”

There’s a third thump over the line, and Eita hears Iwaizumi-kun yell something, his face away from the phone, then, “ _ Sorry, Semi-kun, I have to go… I’ll- I’ll text you, okay? _ ”

“Good night,” Eita says back.

* * *

 

Shiratorizawa loses a match the next day, and Eita can’t bring himself to be as sad as the rest of his team. Ejiri-kun cries on his shoulder the whole ride back to the hotel.

* * *

 

**< OikawaSan>**

how r u liking being back in  classes lol

**< sems>**

i am not liking it

im so behind u dont even know

**< godzilla888>**

i thought yr classmates were  getting u notes & stuff

**< sems>**

y do u think im smart enough  2 comprehend notes……..

**< godzilla888>**

thats fair same tbh

**< OikawaSan>**

iwa-chan ur top of your class  shut up

only stupid ppl allowed in here

**< godzilla888>**

hahaha

its funny because youre in class 5

**< sems>**

damn……..

im just over here….

class 2……….

**< OikawaSan>**

youre smart in other things semi-kun!

**< sems>**

haha yes… other things…..

like cat genetics

**< godzilla888>**

hit me with those cat facts…..

**< sems>**

tabbies with a continuous stripe all  the way to the end of their tail r  called mackerel tabbies because  mackerels have a stripe like that

**< godzilla888>**

amazing

**< OikawaSan>**

wow how r u still single

**< sems>**

i ask myself the same thing everyday

**< OikawaSan>**

idk how im still single either…

i kno y iwa-chans single though

**< godzilla888>**

oh?

**< sems>**

do share

**< OikawaSan>**

its because his instagram name  hasnt changed since 2year in  middle school

**< sems>**

wait rly……..

**< godzilla888>**

oikawa stay where u r im coming  over and im bringing my sisters  baseball bat

**< sems>**

its been 5min is he offline…

**< godzilla888>**

thats wat he gets…

* * *

 

**< sems>**

i did it……..

i passed a maths test……

**< OikawaSan>**

(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

**< volleyball888>**

!!!!!!!!!!

**< OikawaSan>**

iwa-chan that name is worse

**< sems>**

it…. it is

**< volleyball888>**

im deactivating fuck u guys

**< OikawaSan>**

lol bye

**< sems>**

rip iwaizumi-kun

**< fuckoikawasan>**

is this better?

**< OikawaSan>**

AND YOU HAVE THE NERVE  TO SAY IM MEAN.

**< sems>**

holy shit.

**< godzilla889>**

im sticking with this

**< sems>**

wait wat happened to godzilla888

y 889 now

**< OikawaSan>**

dont tell me…….

**< godzilla889>**

someone took it

**< OikawaSan>**

WOW

**< godzilla889>**

u dont hav 2 be mean about it

**< sems>**

your username was literally just  fuckoikawasan i think hes allowed to  be a little mean

**< godzilla889>**

yea fair

REALLY THO good job w maths!

**< sems>**

haha thanks

* * *

 

Over summer break, Eita goes home. He has a week-long volleyball training camp in a week, but for now, he’s allowed to just stay at home and avoid the heat by eating ice-pops all day and watching cartoons.

Or, he’d  _ like _ to be able to do that.

“Eita, come  _ outside! _ It’s beautiful!”

“I’m busy,” Eita says, and opens his second ice-pop of the day.

Iwao eyes the ice-pop with a fair amount of distrust. “These are all I’ve seen you eat for two days. Are you  _ sure _ you’re an athlete?”

“This is my off-week,” Eita says, and he tries to bite into the ice-pop but it’s still very much frozen, and he winces when the cold makes its way into his teeth. “I’m allowed to eat garbage. Also, these are made with real fruit.  _ Also _ , I know for a fact that you eat nothing but instant ramen and take away, so you don’t get to say anything.”

“Oh, my god, not so loud! Do you  _ want _ kaa-san to hear-”

“Does he want kaa-san to hear ‘what’?”

Eita freezes with his ice-pop half in his mouth, Iwao’s hand reaching out to silence him. Kaa-san stands in the doorway, hands on her hips and hair tied in a neat bun, looking - not without love - disapprovingly at her two sons.

The scene unfreezes as she strides forward, taking the ice-pop from Eita’s hands and pushing Iwao down into a chair. “I’m gone for two days and you two are already bickering?”

There’s silence, and then Iwao points at Eita accusingly and says, “Eita’s been eating nothing but ice-pops since he came home!”

“You’re  _ so immature! _ ” Eita shouts back. “They’re good! They have real fruit! That’s nutrients-!”

“No, it’s not! That’s like saying only eating french fries is okay because potatoes are vegetables!”

“Sometimes you make me wish  _ I _ was a vegetable!”

Iwao freezes, then lets out an amused snort. “What? Why!”

“Because vegetables don’t have to deal with annoying older brothers.”

“Wow~!” Iwao leans across the space between the chair he’s sitting in and where Eita is on the couch and asks, “You don’t want an annoying older brother? Not even an annoying older brother who brought you Pokemon things from Toyko-”

“What! You didn’t-” Eita’s already forgotten about the ice-pop.

“I’ll give them to you if you beat me in a race to the creek.” Iwao smiles widely, like he thinks Eita doesn’t realise he’s just trying to get him outside. Eita should be mad that it’s working, but he’s not.

“You’re  _ on! _ ”

They scramble to put their shoes on, Eita determined to tie and double-knot his faster than Iwao, while kaa-san laughs from where she still stands behind the couch. “What do you two want for dinner?”

“Tekka maki-” Iwao shoves Eita in the shoulder, effectively cutting him off.

“Katsudon!”

“No!” Eita stops tying his laces and turns to look at kaa-san pleadingly. “Kaa-san, please, we  _ always _ have katsudon-”

“You can’t  _ just _ have tekka maki, that’s not a full meal-” Iwao argues back.

“Not with that attitude!”

“Congratulations, boys!” Kaa-san interrupts. “I don’t feel like making  _ either _ of those things, so I’m just gonna fry up some vegetables and rice.”

Eita tilts his head back and groans.

“Maybe, if you  _ helped her _ in the kitchen- OW! Don’t elbow me, you brat-!”

“ _ You’re _ the adult!” Eita argues back. “ _ You _ help her!”

“Keep it up, and you’ll both be on your own for dinner!”

Both Eita and Iwao tie their shoes in silence after that, only nudging each other with their elbows on occasion to show that they’re still pretending to fight.

Because truly, Eita loves his brother.

* * *

 

“How’s high school?” Iwao asks. He’s ankle-deep in the creek, Eita choosing to sit on a rock so tall his toes don’t even touch the water when he stretches. “Any new friends I should know about?”

“Well.” Eita kicks his heel against the rock. “I’m the backup setter on our volleyball team.”

Iwao nods. “That was to be expected. Go on~”

Eita grabs a handful of dirt and throws it at Iwao, who screams high-pitched and shields his face with his arms, laughing. “My roommate’s kind of a pain in the ass, but he’s okay. He plays volleyball, too, and he’s a  _ crazy-good _ middle blocker. And one of our first year wing strikers is a starter already, too, but his skills are, like, unearthly.”

“Ugh,  _ enough _ about volleyball; I wanna hear about your friends!”

Eita just stares.

“Do- You seriously don’t have any friends?”

“Shut up!” Eita throws another handful of dirt at Iwao, some of which manages to get caught in Iwao’s black hair. “I have friends! They’re just all… you know… volleyball friends.”

Iwao walks over to Eita’s rock and attempts to climb up onto it, but Eita pushes him back. (“Get your own rock!”) “What about kids in your class?”

Eita just shrugs. “We don’t like the same things, so there’s nothing to talk about.”

“Nobody from volleyball is in there?”

Eita shakes his head.

“Okay, well… Have you stayed in touch with Choki-chan?”

“His family moved to Europe, remember?”

Iwao pouts. “Yeah, yeah, I remember.” He totally didn’t, but Eita’s not going to call him on that.

“Actually, I do have a couple of friends who aren’t from the club-”

“Oh, thank god! My little brother has normal friends! It’s a miracle-!” Before he can continue, Eita pushes Iwao on the shoulder, and he almost falls.

“They’re still volleyball friends, they just play at a different school! Shut up!” Eita crosses his arms and scowls. “You’re so mean about this. Do  _ you _ have any friends?”

“Well, you already know Sanji-chan and Hakoyama-kun.”

“Obviously,” Eita says. “They’re terrible. Leave them.”

“Eita!” Iwao grabs a chunk of unidentifiable plant from the creek and throws it at Eita, who’s laughing so hard he has to hold onto the rock to not fall off. “We were all so nice to you growing up! I can’t believe you still harbour such unnecessary distaste for my friends-”

“Hakoyama-kun killed my goldfish!”

“Okay, yeah, that’s fair.” Then, “Actually, there’s something I really needed to talk to you about.”

On the rock, Eita straightens. “What is it?”

“So, I’m-” Iwao scratches at the inside of his left wrist and looks off to the side. “I’m kind of seeing someone-”

Eita leans forward and cuts him off, “Is it a boy?”

Iwao looks at him, disbelieving. “No, I’m gay and dating a girl-  _ yes _ , it’s a boy, Eita, geez!”

Eita grins and reaches for another handful of dirt.

“No! Don’t you dare, you bastard! Throw dirt one more time and I’ll tell kaa-san all about the time you hid a kitten in your room for three months even though she specifically said no pets-”

“You helped!”

“Oh, fuck, you’re right… Anyway!” Iwao comes closer and makes to climb on the rock again; Eita lets him this time. “Anyway… I wanted to have him over for dinner one night while I’m here, but I’m just worried about kaa-san. Like, I  _ know _ she said she doesn’t give a shit, but what if it’s different when I’m actually seeing someone?”

Eita stares at Iwao for a solid thirty seconds before he says, “Holy shit, my brother’s in college and yet he’s still a total idiot.”

“ _ Excuse me-! _ ”

“You  _ do _ know that kaa-san’s dating Hada-san from the konbini with all the mochi near that park, right?”

Iwao blinks.

“Hada-san is a woman, Iwao.”

Iwao blinks, again.

“She really won’t care that you have a boyfriend-”

Iwao pushes Eita off the rock.

* * *

 

Egawa Shinshuke, upon first glance, is absolutely nothing like Iwao. He’s quiet, extra polite to Kaa-san, short - Eita watches him all throughout dinner with narrowed eyes across the table.

Iwao doesn’t notice, too caught up in friendly conversation with Kaa-san and Egawa-san. Eita picks at his rice and resists the urge to chew with his mouth open.

“So?” Iwao asks once Egawa-san’s left to go back to his own parents’ house. “Thoughts? Opinions?”

Eita just hums noncommittally.

* * *

 

Training camp is not at all how Eita expected it to be. He’d been to several in middle school and, sure, he knew this one would be different because he was in  _ high school _ now, so everything was automatically more intense, more serious, but  _ this? _ This just felt like too much.

They were running drills every day (which they did normally, too, but that was usually something like fifty serves, or doing one lap around the gym of flying falls, not twenty minutes of serves, then twenty minutes of receives, then twenty minutes of just passing a ball back and forth with a teammate) and practicing all day, with the only breaks being for water, to stretch, or for meals.

Some of Eita’s teammates were strangely enthusiastic about this schedule, including Eita’s wild-haired roommate Tendou-san (who he still has yet to really speak with, despite having lived together for several months) and Ushijima-kun (who’s enthusiasm is almost unnoticeable).

“Semi!”

Eita turns from where he’s watching Ushijima-kun and Ejiri-kun take a water break before they move onto passes. (It’s become a habit of Eita’s to watch his teammates’ interactions, which seems strange but, hey, it’s not like it’s hurting anyone.)

Shibahara-senpai is making a bumping motion with his arms. “Pass with me?”

Eita passes another glance over his shoulder and watches Ejiri-kun set his water bottle down onto the bench, saying something with big hand gestures. He chews on his lower lip for a moment, then turns back. “Okay.”

Passing is okay. Passing is normal. Eita can  _ do _ passing. What Eita  _ can’t _ do is the smiles and the laughs and the light conversation that Shibahara-senpai keeps up as the volleyball passes from his forearms to Eita’s and back again.

At a particularly good pass on Eita’s part, Shibahara-senpai says, “Yeah, you’ve definitely gotten  _ way _ better at these! Just a little more, and I’m sure Washijou-sensei will start putting you in games for real. Then we can actually play together!”

Eita almost fumbles his next pass.  _ Almost _ . “Y-yeah?”

Shibahara-senpai just smiles, and Eita’s stomach twists, and, yeah, okay, he’s  _ definitely _ gay.

* * *

 

**godzilla889** >  
_ August 4, 20xx at 7:31 PM _

<sems>

yea so..

im definitely gay

<godzilla889>

ok 1: mood

2: do u wanna elaborate or ?

<sems>

njfjndfjhgd…….

boys

<godzilla889>

MOOD. ME ALWAYS.

<sems>

volleyball camp has been a struggle

u dont even KNOW

<godzilla889>

i am also at camp i think i kno

<sems>

our captain…..hot

fuck that feels so rude to write

but its true…………….

<godzilla889>

ur gay for your CAPTAIN?

valid i guess

im. gay for a Friend so..

<sems>

i called it

<godzilla889>

u dont even kno who im TALKING  ABOUT.

<sems>

oikawa

<godzilla889>

nnnnn.

<sems>

see? i called it

<godzilla889>

u cant. say. anything.

<sems>

i wont

promise

* * *

 

As usual, it’s hard for Eita to get back into classes. He finds himself staring out the window instead of paying attention to his teachers more than usual, and homework is extra hard to get done. It doesn’t help that his mind is constantly focused on  _ other things _ .

_ Other things _ specifically being the fact that both he and Iwaizumi-kun are trying their hardest to avoid the looming topic of sexuality with Oikawa-kun. Their private messages have devolved a mixture of gay jokes and talking about how they’re dealing with it at two in the morning, but the group chat with Oikawa-kun has stayed mostly the same.

It feels a little stifling.

The Spring Interhigh will be starting its first preliminary rounds soon as well, which just adds more stress to Eita’s shoulders. There’s no way they won’t be playing Seijoh again. Both schools were some of the strongest in the prefecture, after all.

Eita wonders what it would be like to set against Oikawa-kun again, after these past few months.

* * *

 

“Are you gonna finish that?”

Tendou-kun is talking about the pudding that Eita’s been staring intently at for the past seven minutes.

“No.” Eita pushes it across the table. “You can have it, if you want.”

Tendou-kun grins and peels the foil top off the pudding cup. Beside Eita, Oohira-kun lets out a hum. “You’ve barely eaten anything, Semi-kun; are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah,” Eita says, “I’m just not really hungry.”

Oohira-kun smiles at him and turns back to continue the conversation they’ve been having with Ushijima-kun, letting the topic drop.

Lunch is Eita’s least favourite time of day. The cafeteria doesn’t get  _ noisy _ , but it is a bit overwhelming. He eats at a table in a corner with some of the other first years in the volleyball club, mostly because he knows he’s going to be playing with them in a year or two. Not because he wants to be  _ friends _ , or something.

Because Eita kind of, sort of,  _ really _ doesn’t know how to feel about these guys. Tendou-kun’s his roommate, but they barely speak outside of practice and lunch, and Tendou-kun has this air about him that makes him feel a bit - well, unapproachable might not be the right word, but it’s the only one Eita can think of right now. Ushijima-kun is blunt, and tall, and he has pretty eyes and a powerful spike, which is all very intimidating, so Eita isn’t too keen to talk to him, either. Oohira-kun he barely knows, but they were paired up a lot during their summer training camp, and he’s been very kind all year, but he’s-

Eita breathes out harshly through his nose; nobody seems to notice.

Oohira-kun is very pretty. He has soft-looking skin and warm eyes, and sometimes in conversation Eita will catch himself spacing out and watching Oohira-kun’s lips instead of his eyes, and it’s all very stressful.

Tendou-kun is pretty, too, in his own way. It’s probably the number one reason why Eita’s been too anxious to speak to him in a more private setting, what with his long eyelashes and cute, slightly-upturned nose, and how soft his hair looks before he spikes it up with obscene amounts of gel-

“I’m gonna go get a juice,” Eita says, standing up and grabbing his tray of barely-touched food. “I’ll see you guys at practice later.”

“Okay,” Oohira-kun says, smiles. Tendou-kun throws a peace sign and Ushijima-kun watches Eita through veiled concern. Eita doesn’t dwell on it as he leaves the cafeteria.

He walks down the hall toward the vending machines, playing with the sleeves of his blazer nervously. This whole ‘gay’ thing is a lot shittier than Eita initially thought it was, especially because he’s surrounded by boys almost all day, every day, and they’re all so  _ pretty _ , and god  _ damn it _ , aren’t high school boys supposed to be  _ ugly? _

Eita bumps into someone who seems to appear out of nowhere and nearly falls on his ass.

“Woah, Semi-kun, are you okay?”

It’s Hashi-senpai. He has a hand wrapped around Eita’s bicep to steady him.

Eita shakes his head and the hallway stops spinning. “I’m fine,” he says, hopefully keeping the stress out of his voice. “Just a little tired. Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“No worries.” Hashi-senpai takes his hand off Eita’s arm and stuffs it into the pocket of his blazer. “I wasn’t really looking, either, so it’s not really your fault.” He leans to the side and looks over Eita’s shoulder, frowns. “Are you by yourself? Why aren’t you at lunch?”

“I needed to use the bathroom,” Eita lies. Telling Hashi-senpai that he’s been stressing over the fact that his teammates are  _ boys _ , and boys are  _ hot _ , and thus his teammates are  _ hot _ , is absolutely out of the question.

“Alright, well, don’t get lost.” Hashi-senpai pats Eita on the shoulder and moves around him to head down the hall, presumably going to the cafeteria. “I’ll see you at practice!”

Eita looks back, raises his hand in a half-wave, but Hashi-senpai’s already moved quite a ways down the hall, so he doesn’t even see it. Eita lowers his hand back down to his side with a sigh.

* * *

 

Oikawa-kun stirs the straw around in his glass of water. “I just don’t know what to do?”

“Well,” Iwaizumi says, folds his hands together on top of the table, “if you like her, then-”

“But I  _ don’t _ like her,” Oikawa-kun interrupts. “Like, at all. She’s kind of rude, actually.”

Eita snorts.

“This isn’t  _ funny _ ,” Oikawa-kun whines. “It’s a serious problem! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Iwaizumi rolls his eyes, sighs. “Generally, if someone you don’t like confesses to you, you turn them down, Oikawa.”

“But it’s-”

“It’s not really rude if you’re nice about it,” Eita says. “Just be like - I don’t know - ‘oh, I’m flattered, but I don’t feel the same. Maybe we can still be friends?’”

“I don’t  _ want _ to be friends, though,” Oikawa-kun says. “She’s  _ rude _ .”

“You don’t have to  _ mean it _ ,” Eita says. “As long as she gets the point, I think you’re fine?”

“Hmm…” Oikawa-kun scratches his chin. “I guess you’re right…”

Eita glances at Iwaizumi from the corner of his eye and isn’t surprised to find him frowning and looking a bit bored. Oikawa-kun is frowning as well, but his gaze is directed at his water. Eita coughs.

“So… do you guys actually want to help me with my maths now, or-?”

“What are you doing?” Iwaizumi asks.

“Polynomials.”

Oikawa-kun scrunches up his nose. “I hate those.”

“I’d probably hate them, too, if I actually understood them,” Eita says. “Please help.”

* * *

 

**< OikawaSan>**

girls r confusing

i think im just gonna not respond lmao

**< sems>**

c.can u do that??

is that allowd???

**< godzilla889>**

dont b rude.

at least give her an answer

**< OikawaSan>**

its so hard tho..

**< godzilla889>**

litrlly u can just say like.

sry im not interested

**< OikawaSan>**

hhhh

**< sems>**

oh my god………

**< OikawaSan>**

wen u get confessd 2 youll undrstand

**< godzilla889>**

“wen u get confessd 2” nice joke

**< sems>**

lmaooo

**< OikawaSan>**

dont put yrselvs down!!

were all hot vball boys here!!

**< sems>**

thats funny

**< godzilla889>**

if i ever get confessd 2? ill probly cry

in a bad way

**< OikawaSan>**

Why!!!!!!!

**< sems>**

its funny bc its a mood

**< OikawaSan>**

i dont undrstand yall…….

fine ill tell her no. and ill b nice about  it

happy?

**< godzilla889>**

yes

* * *

 

“ _ I think I should tell him _ .”

Eita gives a questioning hum.

“ _ Not that… I like him, just- I don’t want to keep who I am from my best friend, you know? _ ” Over the phone, Iwaizumi gives a static sigh. “ _ It feels wrong _ .”

“Tell him, then,” Eita says. He types the problem he’s working on into his calculator and frowns when he gets a different answer from the other two times he’s tried it. Maths sucks. “I doubt it’d change anything. Oikawa-kun is… a good person.”

Iwaizumi groans. “ _ He is… I just feel fucking  _ dumb _ for liking him, like- _ ” He cuts himself off and groans again. “ _ It feels hopeless. _ ”

“We’re still young,” Eita says in an unexpected bout of maturity. “There’s time. And plenty more people.” When he gets yet another completely different answer for the problem, he almost stabs a whole right through his homework paper. “Maybe it’ll work out with time?”

Again, Iwaizumi hums. “ _ How are things with your senpai? _ ”

“Don’t even  _ start _ ,” Eita groans. “I’m not- I wouldn’t want to  _ pursue _ anything- but-” He makes an incoherent sound in the back of his throat. “He’s so  _ nice _ , and-”

The door to his dorm room opens and Eita slams his hand on his phone, taking Iwaizumi off speaker phone just as Tendou-kun enters. Eita’s heart threatens to beat right out of his chest. Tendou-kun sits down on his bed, doesn’t pay Eita any mind, but Eita’s shaking just a little bit as he raises his phone to his ear.

“S-sorry, I have to go take care of something,” Eita says. “I’ll talk to you later?”

“ _ Are you okay? _ ”

“Yeah,” Eita says, glances at Tendou-kun, who’s taken out his DS and is lounging back in his pillows, out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry about it.”

“ _ Mm… _ ” Iwaizumi presumably stifles a yawn. “ _ I’m pretty tired, anyway. I’ll- yeah… I’ll talk to you later, Semi. ‘Night. _ ”

“Goodnight,” Eita says.

The line clicks dead.

Across the room, Tendou-kun doesn’t even give Eita a look. Eita, as he turns back to his impossible maths homework, is grateful that he didn’t get a nosy roommate.

* * *

 

For the Spring Tournament, because their team had been the one to go to the Nationals during the Interhigh, Shiratorizawa got to skip several games. While Eita’s grateful for less stress in that manner, all that means is more training.

Over the past couple of months, his jump serves have gotten fairly decent (or, that’s what Kanada-senpai says, anyway), so Eita’s hoping -  _ hoping _ \- he gets to play even part of a set during their actual games. Until then, though, he’s content with practicing with his team and discussing with Iwaizumi and Oikawa-kun how far the other teams are going to make it. (Oikawa-kun thinks Datekou’s got a guaranteed spot in the semi-finals, and Iwaizumi seems pretty certain that this’ll be the year Karasuno “finally makes a comeback”. Eita’s not entirely sure  _ what _ to think.)

Today is the day that they get to see whether Oikawa-kun’s prediction is correct or not.

Seijoh, for their first match, is playing Datekou. Shiratorizawa doesn’t have to play until the next round of games, so Eita doesn’t  _ need _ to be here, at the gym, but he is anyway. He figures he can at least support his friends and cheer them on when they aren’t playing Eita’s own team, right?

Eita hasn’t been to an official high school volleyball game since- well, actually, he’s never been to an official high school volleyball game as a spectator before. It’s new, and (if he’s being honest) kind of uncomfortable. He almost gets lost just trying to find the bathroom in the crowd.

The bathroom is familiar, white tiling and grey walls with peeling paint in the corners. It’s crowded - it’s always crowded. Nobody here looks to be on one of the teams, though. Eita washes his hands and scrutinises himself in the mirror. There’s a pimple on the left of his forehead, so he brushes his hair over that to cover it up, and then frowns.

It’s not like he  _ cares _ what he looks like.

But the bathroom is crowded - crowded, crowded; always so crowded before a game - so Eita turns off the faucet and wipes his hands hastily on his jeans and leaves. Back in the hall, it’s still crowded, but less-suffocating than the bathroom.

(And, god, why is he so  _ nervous _ ? He’s not even playing.)

From his place in the stands, Eita gets a pretty good view of Seijoh’s side of the court. They’re warming up, Oikawa-kun and the third-year setter sending balls up for spikers to hit over the net. Eita doesn’t even glance at Datekou’s side, already too entranced in the setters’ movements to care about the opponent.

Iwaizumi is there, too (of course. Obviously.), and he hits a couple of spikes, does some receives; just standard warm-up material, really. He looks good while doing it - happy. Graceful, even - and Eita tightens his hands on his knees and wishes he could be down there playing with them.

Somebody sits down in the seat next to him, and Eita forces himself to relax and just enjoy the match. There’s no point in pondering over things he can’t even bring himself to fully think about.

* * *

 

Seijoh wins.

Eita snaps the best photo he can of he celebrating team with his phone and texts it to Iwaizumi and Oikawa-kun through their group chat. Then he heads out of the stands and starts making his way back to school.

* * *

 

“So?” Tendou-kun leans farther into Eita’s space, and Eita ducks his head down, focuses harder on the game he’s playing on his DS. “You aren’t even going to pretend to be excited?”

Eita lets himself look up briefly to where Ejiri-kun keeps looking at him and then looking away just as fast. It’s… well, the feeling that stirs up is complicated, but Eita would much rather focus on  _ that _ than the way his stomach twists when Tendou-kun leans just a little closer. God, fuck boys, honestly.

“I’m not playing in the match,” Eita says, looking back down at his game. “And we know we’ll win, anyway; what’s there to get excited about?”

“I’m not playing, either, Semi-kun,” Tendou-kun says, “but it’s always worth getting excited about volleyball.”

Eita glances up again, and the seriousness in Tendou-kun’s eyes is enough to make him feel ashamed for not really caring.

* * *

 

Eita is  _ amazed _ that Karasuno managed to make it this far into the tournament, because from what he can tell, they  _ suck _ . They’re barely halfway through the first set, and already Shiratorizawa is pumelling them.

And honestly? Eita feels… bad. They’re trying so hard, and losing so badly, and Ushijima-kun hits a spike and Eita’s heart  _ cracks _ when he sees how the player he’s been watching on the bench looks.

Karasuno only has a few players on the bench. Eita thinks maybe they’re just there because there are barely any players on the team. The one Eita’s been watching - grey hair a shade darker than his own, baby fat still on his cheeks - looks enraged. No, that’s not the right word… He looks more…

Hashi-senpai blocks Karasuno’s spike and the word Eita was looking for disappears from the tip of his tongue.

* * *

 

“Do you talk to anyone from other schools?” Eita asks. “Other than me, I mean.”

Oikawa-kun frowns. “Uh, not really… Why?”

Eita looks back down at the sidewalk and stuffs his hands into his jacket pockets, shrugs. “No reason.”

Oikawa-kun hums and knocks their shoulders together. “You sure?”

“Mm…” Eita watches his shoes on the sidewalk and thinks about the intense look on that grey-haired player’s face during the match. “There was someone… on Karasuno. He looked interesting. I kinda wanted to see if you knew him.”

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know; he didn’t play.”

Oikawa-kun hums again. “Karasuno, huh? I’ll see what I can do.”

Eita blinks, stops walking, looks up at Oikawa-kun. “What?”

Oikawa-kun stops walking, too, turns to face Eita with a smile. “I said, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Wh- It’s not like I want to meet him, or anything,” Eita backtracks. “He just looked interesting.”

“You don’t want to meet interesting people?”

Eita scuffs the toe of his shoe on the ground. That’s enough of an answer for Oikawa-kun.

* * *

 

Shiratorizawa plays Seijoh in the semi-finals and wins.

* * *

 

“So, how does it feel to be going to nationals again?” Iwaizumi asks.

Eita shrugs. “It’s not like I get to play.”

“Ooh.” Oikawa-kun lets out a low whistle. “You’re  _ bitter _ .”

Eita frowns. He is bitter - sort of. It’s not like he expected to be the starting setter for such a big sports school in his first year, but he  _ did _ think he’d at least get to play in more official matches. “I’m not,” he says, and it’s only a little bit of a lie. “Kanada-senpai’s a great setter. I just wish I wasn’t on the  _ bench _ all the time.”

“Bitter,” Oikawa-kun repeats.

“Maybe,” Eita relents.

Oikawa-kun heaves out a big sigh. “Still,” he says. “Nationals. That has to feel good, at least.”

“If I can’t play, I’d rather stay home.” Eita knows he’s being difficult, but he can’t really help it; he’s tired, and stressed.

“Maybe they’ll sub you in for a bit?” Iwaizumi suggests. Then he stops abruptly and says, “Oh, we’re here,” and the conversation ends.

Eita’s grateful for it.

* * *

 

On Eita’s first night in Tokyo, he plugs his headphones into his phone, finds a secluded corner, and waits for Oikawa-kun to call like he said he would. He’s tired from the long ride out to the city, and part of him just wants to go to sleep, but Eita also really,  _ really _ wants to talk to his friends, so he stays awake by playing puzzle games on his phone.

When his phone rings, Eita almost drops it, because the first thing Oikawa-kun says isn’t ‘hello’, but “ _ Sugawara Koushi _ .”

“W-what?”

“ _ Sugawara Koushi _ ,” Oikawa-kun repeats. “ _ That’s you’re guy. The Karasuno one? He’s their first-year setter. From Nagamushi Junior High _ .”

“How,” Eita says, “did you get all of that information?”

“ _ I have my sources _ ,” and Eita really doesn’t want to know, “ _ and, uh- I may have… asked around. At Karasuno _ .”

“ _ So  _ that’s _ where you were the other day instead of practice, huh? _ ” Iwaizumi’s voice questions.

Oikawa-kun squeaks. “Eep! _ Iwachan, I forgot you were even on the call! Speak up next time! _ ”

“That was sweet of you, but you shouldn’t have skipped practice for me,” Eita says. “I mean, if you keep missing practices, then how are you ever gonna get to Nationals?”

Iwaizumi snorts. “ _ He has a point _ .”

“ _ God, shut up _ ,” Oikawa-kun mumbles. “ _ One practice isn’t gonna kill me. And I didn’t here a  _ ‘thank you’ _ , Semi-kun! _ ”

“Ugh,” Eita says, feigning annoyance. “Thanks.  _ I guess _ .”

“ _ Quiet, you know you love me _ ,” Oikawa-kun says. Then, “ _ Okay, Iwachan, he’s here now, so what was that big important thing you had to tell me? _ ”

The line is silent for a moment, and Eita’s breath stills in his chest. There’s only one thing he can think of that Iwaizumi would want Eita around for when he tells Oikawa-kun, and it’s- It’s not like either of them are  _ afraid _ that Oikawa-kun isn’t going to be receptive of it, it’s just- it’s scary. Telling people is scary.

“ _ Yeah, so _ ,” Iwaizumi says, his voice almost drowned out by the sound of Eita’s heartbeat in his ears (and Eita isn’t even the one  _ saying anything _ , but he’s just so nervous  _ for _ Iwaizumi), “ _ uh, I’m gay _ .”

There’s quiet for only half a second before Oikawa-kun says, “ _ Oh, okay _ .”

“Me, too,” Eita cuts in. “I’m-”

“ _ Oh! _ ” Oikawa-kun just sounds surprised, which isn’t  _ bad _ , so Eita’ll take it.

There’s quiet again for another moment before Oikawa-kun breathes out a shaky breath and says, “ _ I don’t know what I am _ .”

“I think that’s okay,” Eita says. “I mean, we’re still kids… so…”

“ _ Yeah _ .” Iwaizumi sounds more confident than he did a minute ago, which is good.

The silence that follows is only a little bit uncomfortable, but it’s uncomfortable all the same, so Eita switches the topic and says, “So, Sugawara, huh?”

“ _ Yeah! _ ” Oikawa-kun already sounds more upbeat. “ _ I found his Instagram, too, so we- _ ”

“Oikawa!  _ You just dug around for his social media? You don’t  _ know _ him!” _

“ _ It’s  _ fine _ , Iwachan, don’t worry about it _ ,” Oikawa-kun says. “ _ It’s not like he knows. _ ”

“ _ He’ll know if you contact him _ .”

“ _ Not necessarily! I could be like, ‘oh, hi, Sugawara-san! I stumbled on your account by accident, and, wow! We’re both high school volleyball setters in Miyagi? What a coincidence! _ ’”

“Yeah,” Eita says, “because that’s  _ so _ inconspicuous, he’d never realise.”

Oikawa-kun groans. “ _ Shut up… I don’t see either of  _ you _ going out of your way to make new friends. _ ”

“ _ Literally the only reason we’re friends with Semi is because he came to talk to us, unprompted _ ,” Iwaizumi says, “ _ so you be quiet _ .”

* * *

 

Shiratorizawa doesn’t get as far through the Nationals as they did last time, but that’s okay. Eita’s secretly a little bit grateful, because he’s gotten kind of tired of sleeping on a futon in a room with a bunch of other teenage boys. There’s other reasons he’s not too sad about going home, but the biggest one is that he misses his own bed.

When they get home, there are a lot of tears shed for and by the third years. Shibahara-senpai gives Eita an especially hard hug, pats him on the head, and wishes him luck next year. This renders Eita so completely useless that he can barely respond when Kanada-senpai tells him he’s glad Eita’s the one taking over as the starting setter, or something.

Not even a full minute after the third years leave the gym, Eita’s tackled to the ground by an (always) over-enthusiastic Tendou-kun. “I bet we all make first string this year,” and he’s talking about the first years, of course.

“That’s doubtful,” Ushijima-kun says, realistic as always. “Maybe if you work on your receives a bit more, you’ll have a chance at making the second string, though.”

Tendou-kun frowns, and lets Eita up. “Be a little bit more idealistic, Wakatoshi-kun,” he says, and when Eita dusts his legs off and looks, Tendou-kun’s eyes are dancing with mirth. “It’d be neat if a bunch of us first years could all play together, you know? And besides… I don’t want to work on receives.”

“Then you won’t be able to play in a real game,” Ushijima-kun says, and Tendou-kun groans and knocks his shoulder against Ushijima-kun’s; Ushijima-kun does not waver. “You have to work on what your bad at to improve, and your receives are far below subpar.”

“You really don’t pull any punches, do you?” Tendou-kun says, swaying and putting a hand over his heart like he’s been shot.

“It’s gonna be weird without Togawa-senpai here,” and when Eita looks to his left, he finds Yamagata-kun has arrived without him noticing.

Eita just hums in agreement. It’s already strange to be standing in the gym without the third years. Kind of… uncomfortable.

* * *

 

**< OikawaSan>**

not 2 be rude but

kinda glad some of the senpai r gone

**< godzilla889>**

thats literlly being rude

**< OikawaSan>**

shut up dont pretend u actually liked  kabane…

he was so rude all the time

**< sems>**

o cant relate my senpai r wonderful

**< godzilla889>**

i bet u already miss yr ex-captain huh

**< sems>**

dont do that

ill eat yr. socks

**< godzilla889>**

my socks

**< OikawaSan>**

tasty…..

socks…….

**< sems>**

i couldnt think of anything else!!

* * *

 

“So, we have a whole month to figure out what to do about Sugawara,” Oikawa says.

Eita sips the last of his juice from the box, and crushes the cardboard in his fist. “Really, we don’t have to do anything.”

“No, we’re doing something,” Oikawa insists. “I went through all that trouble to find out who he is; we can’t just leave him alone!”

“He’s gonna think we stalked him, or something,” Eita argues. “Which,  _ you technically did _ -”

“Life isn’t about technicalities, Semi,” Oikawa says, waving off Eita’s concerns like they mean nothing. “Look, it’s not gonna be a big deal, okay? We, I don’t know, send him a message like, hi, we’re-”

“‘We?’” Eita interrupts. “Don’t drag me into this;  _ you’re _ the one who’s so insistent on talking to him.”

“You’re the one who brought him up in the first place!” Oikawa stops walking and puts his hands on his hips with a huff. “Okay, fine,  _ I’ll _ message him and ask if he wants to hang out sometime. Like… like a first year setters thing.”

“We’re second years now, technically,” Eita points out.

“Again with the technicalities.” Oikawa takes large drink from his carton of milk, then wipes some off his upper lip with the back of his hand. “We befriend him, and then all three of us can hang out. He looks like he’s not too rough around the edges, which’ll be a nice change from someone as barbaric as Iwachan.”

Eita thinks back to not even three days ago, when the three of them had been messing around in the creek and Iwaizumi had almost started crying because a piece of plant had brushed his ankle and he’d thought it was a snake, and snorts, because barbaric is  _ really _ not an accurate word to describe Iwaizumi.

“So? Is that plan  _ okay _ ?”

Eita shrugs. “Yeah,” he says, “go for it.”

He doesn’t expect Oikawa to immediately pull out his phone to bring up Sugawara’s instagram and message him, but Eita guesses it’s okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really just wanted to explore the dynamic that Iwaizumi, Oikawa, and Semi could have if they were written as friends. I also think these three would be really good together in a relationship, because there'd be a lot of balance and stuff. I have more thoughts on this but god, I'm really tired from formatting all of this for AO3...
> 
> Initially I wasn't going to put any third year setter friendship in here but it was just too tempting... We'll get to more with Oikawa, Semi, and Suga in the next chapter, and also Moniwa because I would die for him. There'll also be more about Semi's familial relationships and his friendships with people at Shiratorizawa next chapter, too.
> 
> I'm really excited about where I'm going with this, and I essentially have the whole thing planned out, which is. Very nice, since I usually just write on the spot nnjfdjnkgd If you wanna come yell at me on tumblr, I'm @bokuakaz over there! :**


	2. High School, Year 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He supposes he’s known Oikawa and Iwaizumi were something akin to ‘best friends’ for him, and had probably been subconsciously classifying them as such for a while now. But actually thinking about it? Admitting it to someone else? To himself? It feels strange…
> 
> Eita hasn’t had a best friend in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a MONSTER to get out, especially because I LOST INTEREST in Haikyuu back in August, but I got it back in January and proceeded to crank out the last 11k words of this chapter..
> 
> With my motivation and interest back on Haikyuu, chapter 3 will definitely be out in a shorter amount of time. Hopefully within two months? That's what I'm aiming for...
> 
> Now warnings for this chapter! Also, the texting format changes towards the end because they move to Discord instead of Instagram for that

The text message on Eita’s phone reads  _ <lets go out 4 ice cream!> _ .

Never mind the fact that the school year ended three days ago; Tendou-kun has texted the Volleyball Club First Years group chat (they still have yet to change the name) every day of spring break so far asking to hang out.

Like he’s done the past two times, Eita ignores the text; he doesn’t want to get ice cream. It’s too  _ cold _ . Maybe if Tendou-kun had wanted to grab ramen in the evening or something, but not ice cream, and  _ especially _ not at nine in the morning.

Outside, a bird makes a sound so loud that it comes through Eita’s closed and locked window. Eita frowns, scrunches up his nose.

He woke up half an hour ago and had immediately turned on the heater in his room with plans to not leave all day (even though he  _ knows _ kaa-san will be mad… This is all part of being a teenager, though, so Eita thinks he’s justified in hiding), because even though it’s March and things are warming up outside, it’s still far too cold in the morning for Eita’s tastes. And thus, the heater.

Eita’s phone buzzes a second time with the message. Sighing, he grabs it off of his desk and unlocks it, but doesn’t reply. Instead, he opens Instagram and stares at his chat with Iwaizumi and Oikawa.

There are no new messages.

Spring break is kind of… boring. Eita almost wishes he was back at school. Key word, almost. Getting to sleep in and wear fuzzy socks and pyjamas all day definitely outweighs the fact that school lets him see his friends every day. Which is kind of sad, but fuzzy socks are amazing.

His phone buzzes a third time from the group chat.

_ <Ushijima: It’s too cold and too early for ice cream.> _

Eita opens the message and mutes the chat faster than he’s done anything in his life, because Ushijima-kun just invited Tendou-kun into a conversation and Eita really,  _ really _ doesn’t want his phone to be buzzing continuously all day. It’s not that Eita thinks his friends from school are annoying, or that he doesn’t appreciate them, it’s just that he really,  _ really _ doesn’t want to talk to them right now. It’s not malicious or anything, he just-

INSTAGRAM now  
(🏐🏐🏐): OikawaSan:  
i hav Wonderful News

**< sems>  
** oh?????

**< volleyball889>  
** oikawa please its like 10am….  
not even! let me rest!

**< OikawaSan>  
** turn yr phone on silent maybe????  
u know i dont Sleep…

**< sems>  
** What Is The News

**< OikawaSan>  
** i hav arranged a meeting with dearest sugawara-chan of karasuno!!

**< volleyball889>  
** u could hav said this in DMs…

**< OikawaSan>  
** no  
u need 2 b made aware of me and semis friendships

**< sems>  
** hm… fair  
when though?  
is the meeting

**< OikawaSan>  
** t  
today

**< sems>  
** oh my god. rly.. is it rly..

**< OikawaSan>  
** im going out of town tmrw it had to b today!!

**< sems>  
** d.did he even agree

**< OikawaSan>  
** yes? wat do u want screenshots?

**< sems>  
** no it just sounded unrealistic

**< OikawaSan>  
** u only say that bc u dont know him like i do….

**< godzilla889>  
** Let! Me! Rest!

**< OikawaSan>  
** Turn! Your! Phone! On! Silent!

* * *

The meeting with Sugawara-san is… uncomfortable.

Or, not  _ uncomfortable _ , but definitely weird.

Sugawara-san is kind, and from the get-go, he doesn’t tolerate any of Oikawa’s bullshit. He calls Oikawa out almost immediately on his over-sweet behaviour and says that ‘if Oikawa doesn’t plan on being sincere, he’ll just leave’, or something like that.

But after the little confrontation, he’s just nice. It’s different from what Eita saw during the volleyball game. Where most of Eita’s friends play the way they act (Oikawa graceful and snarky, Iwaizumi rough and with his whole self), Sugawara seems a lot softer now that he’s not in a game.

And he’s not mad about Shiratorizawa beating his team months ago. (Or, at least he’s not mad at Eita, specifically).

“I think maybe there was some unspoken solidarity,” Sugawara-san says at one point while Oikawa’s back up at the counter of the cafe they’re in, getting cake or something. “I mean, as setters stuck on the bench.” And then he goes and asks about the one thing Eita  _ doesn’t _ want to think about; “Are you going to be a starting player this year?”

Eita taps his fingernails on the side of his glass. “Ah, yeah,” he says. “I was the backup setter last year, and our first string just graduated, so…”

Oikawa plops down into his chair with a sigh, holding a plate of chocolate cake close to his chest. “They have so many varieties,” he says. “It was  _ so _ hard to choose.”

“Have you not been here before?” Sugawara-san asks; the conversation is derailed and Eita sighs in relief.

“Actually, I live kinda far from here,” Oikawa says. “I didn’t even know it existed until today.”

“They’re pretty popular around here,” Sugawara-san says. “I used to come a lot back in middle school to study. What about you, Semi-san? Have you been here before?”

Eita looks up from his glass and blinks. “Uhm, no,” he says, a bit rushed, “I haven’t. That cake looks good, though.”

Oikawa stabs a piece with his fork and holds it across the table. “Here,” he says. “It’s good; you’ll like it.”

Eita just stares at the fork. “W-what?”

“Ugh, don’t get cold feet on me  _ now _ , Semi-chan,” Oikawa says, rolls his eyes. He waves the fork around a little and says, “I’m serious.”

_ This is stupid _ , Eita thinks, but he eats the bite of cake and hopes he isn’t blushing (but who’s to say? His face feels pretty hot…). Sugawara-san just… watches.

“It’s good,” Eita says after swallowing, and then takes a big sip from his water.

Oikawa snorts.

* * *

Tendou-kun finally gets his ice cream wish.

In an almost-unheard of change of events, the temperature has risen enough where Eita puts his heater away and begs kaa-san to buy more ice pops.

(“How about I just give you money and you go out for ice cream with your friends?”

Eita frowns. “Oikawa’s out of town, and Iwaizumi has family over.”

Kaa-san huffs a laugh. “What about your friends from volleyball?”)

So, to deal with the heat and lack of social contact for the past week, Eita’s out getting ice cream with Tendou-kun, Oohira-kun, and Yamagata-kun. Ushijima-kun  _ was _ going to join them, but something had come up at home.

“Please,” Yamagata-kun says, “ _ please _ don’t get banana and  _ mint _ .”

Tendou-kun puts his hand on his chest like he’s just been shot. “Hayato-kun, we’re  _ teammates! _ You’re supposed to support my decisions!”

“I feel like I’m legally obligated to try and stop your questionable ideas,” Yamagata-kun says. “You’re going to hate it, and then beg to switch with someone again.”

“I won’t! Cross my heart.”

“What if you just pick  _ one _ flavour?” Oohira-kun offers. “Then you don’t risk not liking what you get.”

Tendou-kun blinks, frowns as though Oohira-kun has just made the most confusing statement imaginable. “But… two flavours? I always get two flavours.”

Eita plays with the hem of his sweater and tries not to feel awkward. While he’s become  _ friends _ with his teammates over the past year, he hasn’t really felt comfortable casually joking with them, or arguing about ice cream flavours, or whatever. He knows they think of him as their friend, and he knows that the conversation is always open to him, but Eita always feels like he’s in a bubble, cut off from the others. It’s why he doesn’t like going out with them much.

It’s why he prefers hanging out with just Oikawa and Iwaizumi, because with them, it doesn’t feel like this.

“Eita-kun-” Tendou-kun’s voice cuts through Eita’s thoughts sharply, easily, like a knife through butter. “Eita-kun, what do you think of banana with watermelon? Have you had their watermelon? Is it good?”

“I don’t know,” Eita says, “I always just get strawberry. But I don’t think banana and watermelon are supposed to go together.”

Tendou-kun frowns and Yamagata-kun shouts, “Ha!”

“Ugh, fine, fine.” Tendou-kun waves his hand dismissively at Yamagata-kun. “No banana and watermelon.”

He steps up to order, and gets banana and mint.

* * *

_ <Ejiri: i know school starts again in 2 days but do u wanna do something before that?> _

Eita stares at the text.

He and Ejiri-kun have never hung out before outside of practice. They also haven’t texted outside of the volleyball club group chat, and that’s only used to remind everyone of when practice is and about camps and such. So, really, there’s not an obvious reason why Ejiri-kun would text Eita, or want to hang out.

Oikawa is still out of town, Iwaizumi’s watching his cousins all week, and Sugawara-san isn’t really an option (they barely know each other), so Eita doesn’t have a real  _ reason _ to turn Ejiri-kun down.

He’s also been very, very,  _ very _ bored these past few days with nothing to do and nobody to hang out with.

So Eita opens the message and asks for a time and location.

They end up meeting at a park that isn’t too far from Eita’s house (which is nice, because it means he can walk there). Ejiri-kun doesn’t look too different from the last time Eita saw him, but his hair is a little bit longer now, pulled into a ponytail that kind of poofs at the back of his head. He has his volleyball club jacket on, too, and shorts, which is a weird combination.

Eita approaches Ejiri-kun with his hands stuffed into the front pockets of his jeans and the air feels… awkward. Ejiri-kun must think the same, because he’s shuffling his feet a little bit and wringing his hands together (subtly, but Eita still notices).

“Hey.” Ejiri-kun puts one of his hands in his pocket and brushes a strand of loose hair behind his ear with the other. Eita stops watching his hands and looks at his face, but eye contact feels uncomfortable right now so he finds himself staring at the bridge of Ejiri-kun’s nose instead. “Sorry I asked to hang out on such short notice.”

“It’s fine,” Eita says. “I didn’t really have plans today, anyway.”

They’re silent for a moment, and Eita resists the urge to cough.

“So, uh,” he says instead. ( _ How eloquent _ , Eita thinks.  _ I am just a master of words _ .) “Was there anything, like…  _ specific _ you wanted to do, or…?”

Ejiri-kun bites his bottom lip. “Uh,” ( _ Cool _ , Eita thinks.  _ At least I’m not the only one who forgot how to speak Japanese properly _ .) “actually, there’s this place really close to hear that has really good sushi apparently? And I wanted to try it, but I don’t like eating alone. And my parents are out of town. So…”

“Alright,” Eita says, “got it.” The way Ejiri-kun phrases it makes it sound like Eita was a last resort option, but his tone of voice suggests otherwise, and the combination confuses Eita enough where he just wants Ejiri-kun to stop talking so they can  _ go _ , so he doesn’t have to think about this too much. “Lead the way.”

The sushi actually  _ is _ really good. And Eita  _ does _ have a good time.

Ejiri-kun is really easy to talk to, actually. And they don’t  _ only _ talk about volleyball, or class, like how Eita usually does with his friends from school.

Their conversation is… personal? Maybe that’s not the right word… Ejiri-kun tells Eita about his little nieces and how they always want him to braid their hair when they visit; he talks about his two dogs; he shows Eita pictures of the toads he sees around his house when he goes for runs. And Eita… he doesn’t hate it.

Actually, he finds himself opening up and talking back just as easily - about Iwao, how he’s enjoying the new Pokemon game, and even about his interest in painting.

“That’s got to be hard to work on at school,” Ejiri-kun says, in regards to the painting thing, and then kicks a rock down the street.

Eita winces as the rock narrowly misses a window. “Uh, yeah,” he says. “I can’t really do much unless I’m at home. It sucks.”

Ejiri-kun hums and goes to kick at another rock.

Eita makes a noise at the back of his throat. “You’re gonna break a window, and I will cry,” he says, just as Ejiri-kun’s foot collides with the rock, which goes sailing down the street. Thankfully, it doesn’t even come  _ close _ to any breakable surfaces.

“Eh, we’d be fine,” Ejiri-kun says. “I think we’re pretty fast runners, so.”

Eita makes the noise again and hides his face in his hands.

* * *

“Wow, what are the odds we’d be rooming together again?” Tendou-kun says when Eita opens the door to their shared room.

Eita sighs. “We  _ asked _ to be roomed together again,” he says. “Did you forget?”

“No,” Tendou-kun says, giving Eita his signature smile - the one reserved for his friends, not his opponents. “It’s just fun to pretend that some things are coincidence, when they’re not.”

* * *

**< OikawaSan>  
** schools literally killing me

**< godzilla889>  
** its only been like. a week

**< OikawaSan>  
** a week 2 long!!!!!

**< sems>  
** god i agree i feel like im dying  
i shouldve worked out more over the break i think my thighs r gonna fall off

**< OikawaSan>  
** dw semi im 80% sure that cant happen  
the 20% is a storng 20% tho

**< sems>  
** gee thanks

**< OikawaSan>  
** no problem!!!

**< godzilla889>  
** your thighs. cannt just . fall off

**< sems>  
** u ok over there iwaizumi?  
yr typings a bit. hh

**< godzilla889>  
** a bit ‘hh’?

**< sems>  
** yea a bit. hh

**< OikawaSan>  
** hh  
thats a mood

**< sems>  
** my specialty is servin moods so i damn well hope its a mood!!1!

**< godzilla889>  
** how. how is yr specialty ‘serving moods’ at all

**< OikawaSan>  
** the cat facts iwachan  
theyre moods always

**< sems>  
** the cat facts  
yeayea.. oikawas got it

**< godzilla889>  
** ok fine cat facts r moods  
but can u serve SMALL MOODS  
or only big ones

**< sems>  
** i can serve all moods. every mood

**< OikawaSan>  
** god speaking of big moods  
im sad

**< sems>  
**cat facts?

**< OikawaSan>  
** pls…………….

**< godzilla889>  
** cat fact: somtimes their feet dont touch the ground they just hover its true ive seen it

**< sems>  
** thats tru i was the cat

**< godzilla889>  
** whos serving moods NOW?

**< OikawaSan>  
** fuck i wish cats could do that their cool factor would increase SO MUCH

**< sems>  
** cat fact: cats can jump up to 7 times their own height which is actually. really scary  
at my uncles house they hav a window up way high like. higher than 2 mes.  
their cat got on a table and then. jumped. onto the window

**< OikawaSan>  
** 2 yous?

**< godzilla889>  
** NFNJFDNJDFNJ……..im the cat

**< sems>  
** IM NOT LYING

**< OikawaSan>  
** its ok semi *i* believe you

**< sems>  
** :’(

* * *

Eita carries his tray across the dining hall to sit at the usual table with Tendou, Ushijima-kun, Yamagata-kun, and Oohira. It’s loud - it’s always loud in here - but as soon as Eita sits down, the sound of Tendou yelping drowns out everything else.

Ushijima-kun has put extra vegetables on Tendou’s tray.

“Ah, Wakatoshi-kun,” and Tendou takes his grin and turns up the innocence about seven notches, “I’ve already had plenty of vegetables for the day.”

“You have not,” Ushijima-kun says, and Eita has to hold back a snicker. “And even if you had, nothing bad can come from extra vegetables.”

“Actually,” Tendou swirls his straw around in his carton of milk, “I’m pretty sure if you eat too much fiber you’ll, like, shit yourself or something-”

“We’re  _ eating lunch! _ ” Yamagata-kun almost-shouts.

Beside Eita, Oohira is laughing  _ very hard _ , and  _ very loudly _ , and Eita himself, while  _ also _ laughing very hard, has more of a wheeze thing going on while tears prick at the corners of his eyes.

It’s not even  _ funny _ .

* * *

**OikawaSan** >  
_ April 12, 20xx at 7:29 PM _

<OikawaSan>  
SO.  
r u free saturday or do u hav practice

<sems>  
i hav practice but it ends at 2  
y?

<OikawaSan>  
sugawarachan is free~~~

<sems>  
if u call him that to his face ill bet 500 yen he decks u

<OikawaSan>  
u r supposd 2 b NICE TO ME wen iwachan isnt around (T_T)  
betrayal semichan………….

<sems>  
wat time r we meeting sugawara-san

<OikawaSan>  
YES I KNEW YOUD B DOWN  
does 4 work?

<sems>  
yea that way i can eat smth/shower  
lmk location when u get it and ill get permission 2 leave campus

* * *

“You sure know some interesting places to meet up,” Sugawara-san says as they walk along the creek, drinks in hand.

“It was Semi’s idea,” Oikawa says. He’s actually walking  _ in _ the creek, balancing from rock to rock, while Eita and Sugawara-san stick to the bank. Oikawa is also the only one wearing sandals, and clearly doesn’t mind getting his feet wet.

Eita drums his fingernails along the side of his can of tea. “It wasn’t,” he says. “Just because I said I liked the creek doesn’t make it my idea to come here. It’s actually a pretty bad place to hang out. Usually there’s a lot of bugs. And the water can get kind of gross.”

At that, Oikawa stops walking and looks down at where his ankles disappear into the water. “I don’t know, it feels pretty okay to me?”

“Hmm.” Sugawara-san taps his index finger to his lip a couple of times. “Maybe there’s some super toxic substance in there, but you can’t see or smell or feel it, and its effects aren’t noticeable until later?”

“That’s dumb,” Oikawa says, but when he starts walking again, Eita notices that he’s careful to only step on rocks that are uncovered by the creek water.

Sugawara-san shrugs. “I don’t know, I think it could be cool. Maybe you’ll wake up tomorrow with super powers, or something.”

“I don’t want to picture Oikawa with super powers,” Eita says. “He’d probably use them for evil.”

Oikawa stops walking again to pout at Eita. “I would not! I’d use them to ensure that my team goes to Nationals for every tournament until I graduate-”

Eita raises a hand to his mouth and stage-whispers to Sugawara-san, “See? Evil.”

“ _ You went to Nationals twice last year _ -”

“Yeah, but I didn’t use  _ super powers _ to do that!”

Sugawara-san laughs, loud. “How long have you two known each other for?”

“A year,” Eita says.

“Oh, geez, it’s been  _ that long _ ?” Oikawa lets out a hum. “Yeah, we met right before the Interhigh last year. Semi was kinda mean at first, though.”

Eita sputters, “That was  _ you! _ ”

Oikawa shrugs. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Again, Sugawara-san just laughs.

* * *

Volleyball practice is much more intense this year. Eita expected this - he  _ is _ the starting setter now, after all - but he just hadn’t  _ prepared _ himself for it, apparently, because every day he leaves practice still out of breath and wishing he’d had more to drink during the day. Tendou, who’s on the second string but still plays with the first string more than he doesn’t, is in the same boat.

Eita’s forearms are sore from practicing receives, and his thighs hurt, and he wipes a glob of spit from the side of his mouth with the back of his hand and hopes nobody sees when he wipes his hand on his shorts. Gross.

“We should offer to fill up water bottles,” Tendou says from beside him. “So that we can  _ rest _ .”

Ushijima-kun passes the ball back, and Eita’s tempted to let it hit him in the face. Maybe if he gets knocked out he can take a nap…

Tendou catches the ball before it collides with Eita’s awaiting face. “ _ Hello _ ? Are you okay?”

“Chisaka-senpai!” Eita calls across the gym.

The captain looks up from where he’s prodding at a ball (he looks like he’s avoiding work, which is a mood, and exactly what Eita wants to be doing right now) and calls back, “Yeah?”

“I’m gonna get a drink! Do you want me to fill up water bottles?”

Chisaka-senpai tosses the ball up in the air, catches it, then glances at the water bottles set out on the bench. “Uh, no, it’s fine!”

Eita gives a thumbs up (which Chisaka-senpai does not see because he’s preoccupied with poking senselessly at the ball again) and then turns to Tendou. “Water?”

Tendou slouches forward until the top of his head rests against Eita’s chest. “Thank you…”

The nearest drinking fountain is in the school, but there’s a water spicket a shorter distance from the gym, and even though they aren’t  _ supposed _ to drink from it, everyone on the volleyball team does (and Eita’s pretty sure everyone on the  _ other _ sports teams does as well). That’s where they go now, Eita walking slowly and trying to breathe normally with Tendou dragging his feet just behind.

Outside, it’s dark and the air is warm. Eita leans against the spicket and pulls out his phone to check the time.

_ 19:37 _ .

“We have, like, twenty minutes left of practice,” Eita says.

Tendou lifts his head from where he was drinking out of the spicket, the lower half of his face dripping with water, and asks, “So, you wanna skip out early?”

Eita kicks the spicket. “Well… We could stall a little… It’s not skipping out early if we just get a really  _ long _ drink of water and come back right at the end, right?”

“I like the way you think,” Tendou says, and goes back in for another drink.

When he’s done, Eita crouches by the faucet and takes drinks of water in mouthfuls. It’s warm, probably a little bit warmer than the air outside, and it tastes like metal and a bit like dirt, but it’s… fuck, it’s so gross, but Eita really thinks it’s nice.

Not the water, just- this. This moment. Sitting outside in the grass made muddy from the spicket, at almost eight at night with a good friend, drinking some of the nastiest water he’s ever tasted. It’s nice. He feels warm.

Or, maybe that’s just the combination of exercise, the late-spring/early-summer night air, and the water.

At 19:55, Eita’s shirt is wet and he has mud in his shoes, but he stands up, twists off the spicket, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand (that he then, once again, wipes on his shorts). “We should go in.”

Tendou stands up from where he’s been sitting on the grass. “Geez, Eita-kun, you look a mess,” he says, snorts.

“Yeah,” Eita says, “because  _ your _ shirt’s any drier. Come on; Chisaka-senpai will actually get mad if we skip cleaning up.”

Tendou lets out an exaggerated sigh, but doesn’t complain as he follows Eita back to the gym.

* * *

**< godzilla889>  
** how hav things been w karasuno-san?

**< sems>  
** pretty good i think

**< OikawaSan>  
** terrible  
HELLO??? SEMI??? HAV WE BEEN MEETING THE SAME EPRSON???

**< godzilla889>  
** u guys ok???

**< sems>  
** wat do u mean TERRIBLE?? hes like. THE nicest person

**< OikawaSan>  
** were u THERE last week?  
he made my laugh so hard milk came OUT OF MY NOSE

**< sems>  
** yea and it was funny!!!

**< godzilla889>  
** i missed THAT?  
dam thats almost enough 2 make me wish i was a setter

**< sems>  
** fhsjfknd????

**< OikawaSan>  
** ugh not u 2 iwachan…  
semichan&sugawarachan laughed at me for twenty min…

**< sems>  
** it was like 30 seconds!!

**< godzilla889>  
** dont bother oikawas never had a good sense of time

**< OikawaSan>  
** bc time is FAKE. its not real

**< godzilla889>  
** uhhuh.

**< OikawaSan>  
** hhhggh….

* * *

The Interhigh comes and goes very fast. Eita hangs out with Oikawa and Iwaizumi less frequently because of all the extra practice, and goes to bed bone-tired every night. The actual games are short as well. Somehow, they feel even faster now that Eita’s actually playing.

The last game of Regionals is against Aoba Johsai (again. Eita thinks maybe it’ll always be like this.) and actually playing against Oikawa for a whole match is terrifying. All three of them had made it clear the night before that they wouldn’t be holding back against each other, friends or not.

And Eita’s watched Seijoh play plenty of times before, in games he’s watched to support his friends and from the sidelines against his own team, but actually being on the court, having Oikawa breathe down the back of his neck for five whole sets, is another story entirely. It’s unsettling. Eita can  _ feel _ Oikawa’s eyes on him at all times, watching and predicting and waiting to see where he’ll set to, if he’ll dump, if he’ll make use of Ushijima-kun as much as Washijou-sensei wants him to.

Iwaizumi doesn’t watch Eita, but he watches Oikawa, which might as well be worse, because Oikawa’s watching Eita, and Eita’s trying to watch all of Seijoh  _ and _ his own team, and it feels kind of unfair that his opponents seem to not have to be one-hundred percent aware of the whole court the whole time, and-

Eita glances at Ushijima-kun as the ball comes toward him in a perfect arc, watches as Oikawa’s gaze follows his own. The ball touches Eita’s fingertips, and he makes a move to set, pushing the ball over the net in a dump at the last possible moment.

When his feet touch the floor again, Eita sees in slow motion as Oikawa looks up from where he’d scrambled to try and save the ball. Oikawa’s eyes are lit up with something Eita’s never seen on him before (or, maybe he has, and just can’t remember?), something feral and angry, something that makes Eita want to shrink and look away. But he doesn’t. He meets Oikawa’s stare head-on, wants to say something but isn’t sure what.

Oikawa doesn’t say anything either, instead whips around to face his team again as the ball is passed back to Shiratorizawa and another point is started.

* * *

**< sems>  
** oikawa u r fucking terrifying

**< OikawaSan>  
** thx ive been perfectin that since middle school  
im glad yr impressd

**< godzilla889>  
** uh yea i wantd 2 say smth but i was waiting 4 somebody else to text first: r u guys OKAY?  
it felt like u were gonna rip each othrs throats out half that match!

**< sems>  
** lmao thats wat tendou said too…  
its th finals man its SUPPOSED to b intense!

**< godzilla889>  
** like that tho?  
for part of it it felt like it was oikawa v semi not aj v stz

**< OikawaSan>  
** THATS WAT IT FUCKIN FELT LIKE  
i am so TIRED DJNSjhjhdf

**< sems>  
** god same….  
i didnt set at ALL last year and now im playing 5 set games on my own? hello?

**< godzilla889>  
** sports r . draining

**< OikawaSan>  
** u can say that again..

**< godzilla889>  
** okay  
sports r . draining

**< OikawaSan>  
** i didnt mean LITRLLY

**< sems>  
** sports r . draining

**< OikawaSan>**

i will steal your socks semi i stg

* * *

Nationals is daunting.

It was last year, too, but now Eita’s on the starting lineup.

Nerves seem to be a recurring thing this year, it seems.

He spins a ball in his hands and stares across the court at the team they’re playing first.

They’re from Tokyo, with a wolf as their mascot, and Eita can see why; their setter keeps flashing Eita a look like he’s going to eat them alive. At one point, he grins, and Eita swears his teeth look unnaturally sharp.

Eita doesn’t think about that, though. He just pushes all of his attention onto setting warm-up balls to the spikers.

The warm-up goes smoothly; the other team doesn’t even flinch at Ushijima-kun’s killer straight or Ejiri-kun’s jump serves, but Eita isn’t worried. He’s surprised at how confident in his own skills as a setter he’s become.

“Are you nervous?” Ejiri-kun places a hand on Eita’s shoulder.

“A bit.” Eita doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to playing on a stage this big.

“That’s good.” Ejiri-kun smiles wolfishly, but it’s so unlike the other team’s grins that Eita isn’t entirely sure that’s a good adjective here. “A little bit of nerves is a good thing. You’re gonna do great, Semi.”

Eita suddenly finds it difficult to look Ejiri-kun in the eyes.

The game itself is fast-paced and difficult. By the end of the second set, Eita’s out of breath and really needs to take a break, but the end is almost tangible, he can practically feel the win on his skin, so he forces himself not to chug from his water bottle and instead to drink slowly, warm the water in his mouth before swallowing to hydrate better.

Washijou-sensei switches Kawasaki-senpai out for Tendou for the last set. Eita resists the urge to fist-pump just because he’s going to win this set with two of his close friends on court with him instead of  _ just _ Ushijima-kun (and don’t get him wrong, Ushijima-kun is wonderful and a great friend, but Eita wants to win with  _ all _ of his friends on the court, not just one).

The set seems to go by in slow motion. Eita’s brain feels sluggish and his face is sweaty and his legs are slow in responding. He mistimes a set, but Ejiri-kun covers for Ushijima-kun and they make the point. (Eita thinks he might pass out in relief.)

Shiratorizawa wins the set, 31 to 29.

Eita ends up leaning most of his weight on Ejiri-kun on their way off of the court.

* * *

“We won, but I almost passed out, like, immediately after.”

“ _ Graceful _ ,” Oikawa says.

“Oh, yeah; the most.” Eita laughs breathily into the phone. “How was class?”

“ _ I’m  _ dying _ , Semi _ ,” Oikawa groans. “ _ Makki and I got paired for a science project, which is fine, except he has  _ terrible ideas _ , and I am really not in the mood to get suspended! Plus, Iwa-chan is too busy with his maths work to hang out after practice recently. _ ”

Eita can  _ hear _ the crying kaomoji in Oikawa’s voice. “Could you help him with it? Maybe it’d get done faster and then you guys could do stuff?”

Oikawa ‘hmm’s. “ _ Well… No, probably not. I’m in class five but Iwa-chan’s ahead of me in maths. He wants to be a doctor, though, so it’s only natural _ .”

Eita didn’t know that. “What do  _ you _ wanna do?”

“ _ Volleyball _ .” Oikawa’s answer is immediate. “ _ Volleyball’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. _ ” He’s quiet for a moment. Then, “ _ That’s weird, isn’t it? _ ”

“No!” Eita says. “No, it’s not. I’d want to keep up volleyball if I was good enough, too. And you definitely are, I think.”

“ _ What do you mean, ‘if you were good enough’? _ ” Oikawa ignores Eita’s compliment and instead sounds scandalised that Eita doesn’t think his own skills are professional-grade. “ _ Semi, you’ve gone to Nationals three times in your high school career so far and you’re barely halfway through second year. Don’t give me some bullshit about how you wouldn’t absolutely  _ kill _ in college or- or professional level volleyball _ .”

Eita sighs. “I  _ wouldn’t _ , though; my team carries me a lot.”

“ _ So does mine _ ,” Oikawa says. “ _ It’s a team sport, Semi-chan;  everyone carries each other _ .”

Eita doesn’t respond.

Oikawa huffs. “ _ Fine. I’ll entertain the thought of you not being an amazing setter for a brief -  _ brief _ \- moment. What do you want to do instead? _ ”

“I want to go to art school,” Eita says, not even having to think about it.

Oikawa is silent. “ _ Wait, you- you do art? _ ”

“I don’t really… talk about it much, but yeah.” Eita picks at the beds of his nails and glances down the hall as a door opens and Ejiri-kun steps out, glances around, spots Eita and starts walking toward him. “We don’t have a big program for it at school, so I mostly do it at home or on weekends. I mean, if I even have time. I like painting, though.”

“ _ Are you… good? _ ” Oikawa asks, then immediately says, “ _ Wait, fuck, of course you are, otherwise you wouldn’t talk about art school… shit. _ ”

Eita laughs. “Yeah… I’m working on my portfolio right now and it’s kicking my  _ a- butt _ ! My butt… I need portraits but I don’t have… references.”

Ejiri-kun sits down next to Eita with his back against the wall; they’re close enough that their shoulders and hips touch.

“ _ Dumbass! You could just ask me or Iwa-chan! I’m sure Sugawara-chan would be fine posing for you, too! _ ” Oikawa’s shouting is so loud, Eita has to pull his phone a little bit away from his ear. He holds a sleeve-covered hand to his mouth to hide his snickering. “ _ Are you laughing at me? Fuck you, I’m trying to help! Ugh, whatever… When you get back, you, me, and Iwa-chan need to hang out again. We should go out for cake to celebrate your loss at Nationals _ .”

“I think you mean my  _ win _ ,” Eita says back.

“ _ No, I mean your loss. And then you, me, and Sugawara-chan should get ramen together and gossip again. _ ”

“Aww, you miss me and Sugawara-san that much? That’s ga- great.” Eita side-eyes Ejiri-kun, but it doesn’t look like he caught Eita’s censoring himself.

Oikawa’s quiet for a moment. “ _ Are you with somebody? Should I hang up? _ ”

“You’re fine,” Eita assures him. “But I am, yeah; it’s cool, you’re my priority right now.”

“ _ Am I on speaker? _ ”

“No.”

“ _ In that case, that’s pretty gay. _ ”

Eita snorts.

“ _ I actually need to do homework _ ,” Oikawa says, “ _ so I should hang up anyway. Good luck tomorrow, don’t lose  _ too _ quickly. I’ll talk to you tomorrow? _ ”

“Yeah,” Eita says. “G’night, Oikawa.”

“ _ Dream about me~! _ ” And then Oikawa hangs up.

“‘Oikawa’?” Ejiri-kun asks.

Eita clicks his phone off and stuffs it into his hoodie pocket. “From Seijoh,” he says. “We’re friends.”

Ejiri-kun thinks on this for a moment before saying, “Ohh, their pretty-boy second-year setter?”

Eita snorts, and that must be enough of an answer, because Ejiri-kun says, “I didn’t realise you guys were friends!”

“We met back at that practice match we played against Seijoh last spring,” Eita says. He looks down at his lap and plays with the edge of his t-shirt. “Me and him and Iwaizumi’ve been pretty close since then.”

“‘Iwaizumi’?”

“One of Seijoh’s wing-spikers,” Eita tells him. “Looks perpetually grumpy, black hair, browner skin?” When Ejiri-kun frowns, confused, Eita sighs and says, “He looks like a porcupine.”

“Oh! Him!”

Eita laughs softly and files this part of the conversation away to tell Iwaizumi about later. “Yeah. They’re… probably my best friends.” The admittance hits Eita hard in the chest, and he has to take a moment to let it sink in.

He supposes he’s known Oikawa and Iwaizumi were something akin to ‘best friends’ for him, and had probably been subconsciously classifying them as such for a while now. But actually thinking about it? Admitting it to someone else? To  _ himself _ ? It feels strange…

Eita hasn’t had a best friend in a long time.

Ejiri-kun seems oblivious to the emotional shock Eita’s recovering from. He folds his hands behind his head and kicks his legs out, slouches back again the wall. “That’s pretty cool, I think. I don’t have any friends at other schools, and definitely not ones who play volleyball. ...Wouldn’t it be weird to play against your friends, though? I’d be worried I’d end up going easy on them and costing my team a game…”

“Well, we played Seijoh at regionals and I felt fine,” Eita says. That’s half a lie, but only because Oikawa is seriously terrifying to play against. He’d certainly be a force to reckon with if he made it to Nationals. “We both really love volleyball, and I guess we can be pretty competitive, so.”

Ejiri-kun sighs through his nose. “I don’t know if I could do it…”

“You don’t hold back on your friends when we split up to practice against our teammates, though.”

“That’s  _ different _ .” Ejiri-kun runs a hand through his bangs and stares up at the ceiling. Eita watches him with curious eyes, thankful that Ejiri-kun’s attention is elsewhere at the moment. “Practice matches and stuff, there’s nothing real riding on them. There’s nothing to lose.” (Eita knows Washijou-sensei would have a fit if he heard that, but he doesn’t say anything.) “In a real game, though, if you lose, that’s  _ it _ . You go home and you wait for the next season to start. And if it’s Spring and you’re in your third year, forget it! It  _ over _ .”

Ejiri-kun closes his eyes, sighs, and lowers his head again. When he opens his eyes, looks at Eita, Eita can’t bring himself to look away.

He hasn’t really thought about that, about Ejiri-kun being a third year. One more season of volleyball and he’ll be leaving. Even last year Eita hadn’t paid much mind to that, but now he’s  _ friends _ with one of the third years - with several of them, actually, but he’s closest to Ejiri-kun. In middle school, he hadn’t really been close with any of his upperclassmen; losing people to university is something Eita feels completely and utterly unprepared for.

“Are you gonna keep playing in university?”

“No.” Ejiri-kun doesn’t hesitate with his answer. “I doubt I’ll have time, and even if I did, I haven’t been scouted or anything. It’s okay, though; I’ll probably play on a neighbourhood team or something afterwards.”

“Hmm.”

Eita doesn’t say anything else, and neither does Ejiri-kun.

* * *

They lose the next morning.

Eita tries not to let himself feel too bothered by it, but the feeling of loss sticks in his chest like a cluster of thorns, and he spends the weekend curled up in his dorm room sleeping, stealing Tendou’s Naruto manga, and watching the continuing matches live.

For Eita, that final point had brought his whole world to a standstill. But around him, everything just keeps moving.

It’s stupid to feel like this over a  _ volleyball game _ , but Eita is suddenly hyper-aware of how insignificant he really is.

On Sunday evening, someone knocks on their dorm room.

Tendou has his headphones plugged into his laptop, watching something on Niconico, so Eita sighs heavily and puts the borrowed manga volume to the side, refolding down the dog-ear that had already been there (Eita doesn’t know why Tendou spends  _ so much money _ on collecting these if he’s just going to fold the pages, but whatever; it’s not like Eita uses bookmarks with his own books anyways) and drags himself off of his bed to answer the door.

It’s Ejiri-kun, dressed in a windbreaker and jeans with a volleyball tucked under his arm. When Eita had run into him in the bathroom yesterday morning, he’d had the same miserable look on his face that Eita had, but now his eyes are bright and he’s got a half-grin on his face.

“Classes start again tomorrow,” he says, “and the summer training camp is just around the corner. So stop  _ moping _ already! Let’s go do something.”

Eita just blinks up at him, his brain still foggy and half of it still thinking about Naruto. “Um,” he says eloquently, “what?”

“We could grab something at a convenience store and go toss a ball around?”

After another beat of silence, Eita’s brain  _ finally _ catches up to the conversation and he says, “ _ Oh _ .” He turns to look at Tendou. “Uhm…”

“Oh!” Ejiri-kun leans in the doorway and waves. “Hi, Tendou.”

Tendou doesn’t look up from his laptop - he probably can’t even hear him.

“...He’s busy,” Eita says. “Uhm, just let me grab my shoes.”

Eita closes the door when Ejiri-kun steps back and locates his sneakers - the muddy, worn black-and-pink ones he’d gotten from Iwao for his birthday last year instead of the white-purple-black ones beside them (the volleyball ones that have been mocking him since he got back to school) - and slips them on. He’s being quiet, careful not to disturb Tendou for some reason (though he’s not sure that’s possible, considering he can hear the music coming from the laptop even with Tendou’s headphones plugged in).

He steps out into the hallway, closes the door softly behind him, and then tugs on his own jacket. “Okay,” Eita says, playing with the wad of 500 yen bills in his pocket. “Let’s go?"

* * *

**< godzilla889>  
** why did this chat die.

**< sems>  
** sorry i got tired of oikawas shit :/

**< OikawaSan>  
** WOAH.  
UM.  
OK.

**< godzilla889>  
** not sure wat u expected oikawa

**< OikawaSan>  
** not fucking this!!

**< sems>  
** ok fr tho i was moping but i missd u guys

**< godzilla889>  
** understandable ig  
the moping not missing us

**< OikawaSan>  
** iwachan roasts himself

**< godzilla889>  
** that wasnt even a roast.

**< sems>  
** so WHATS. been popping

**< OikawaSan>  
** mostly vball practice and studying ew

**< godzilla889>  
** yea that AND i hav 2 tutor our 1years in maths  
bc the 3years cant, apparently

**< sems>  
** 2 be fair u r probably.. better at maths than they r

**< OikawaSan>  
** TY SEMI THATS WTA IVE BEEN SAYING

**< godzilla889>  
** hggk

**< sems>  
** r u ok there iwaizumisan

**< OikawaSan>  
** hes broken

**< godzilla889>  
** im fine shut up

**< sems>  
** on an unrelated note.

**< OikawaSan>  
** a PERIOD? it must b serious..

**< sems>  
** omg shut up..

**< godzilla889>  
** u totally erased your whole message 2 send that didnt u

**< sems>  
** shut UP  
1 of the 3years keeps asking 2 hang out w me like .. 1-on-1 and its NICE but also . hghghghgg every time it kind of feels like a date and like . :// idk how 2 Cope w that

**< OikawaSan>  
** omg…

**< godzilla889>  
** i mean.  
do u WANT it 2 b dates?

**< sems>  
** k.kinda?

**< godzilla889>  
** its not rly a ‘kinda’ sort of question tho

**< OikawaSan>  
** i cant believe semichan is getting some b4 iwachan.. :/

**< godzilla>  
** oh my god OIAKWA.

**< sems>  
** yes?  
i guess?  
but i dont . think he likes. guys

**< OikawaSan>  
** hm………. i c

**< godzilla889>  
** nice, oiawka. v cryptic

**< OikawaSan>  
** only bc SOMEONE wont spell my name right.

**< sems>  
** okiawa

**< OikawaSan>  
** STOP,

**< godzilla889>  
** u could always ask

**< sems>  
** wat like u did?

**< godzilla889>  
** i SAID i was sorry ok i KNOW it was rude

**< OikawaSan>  
** omg iwachan.. did u rly..

**< godzilla889>  
** i didnt ask if SEMI was gay!

**< sems>  
** yea u only asked me if my TEAM was gay

**< godzilla889>  
** THATS NOT EVEN WHAT I ASKED

**< OikawaSan>  
** wow…….. thats so rude iwachan wat if semi was a huge homophobe and thought u were like insulting evry1 on his team ://///  
wouldv ruined the frinedhsip

**< sems>  
** jokes on u i actually AM a huge homophobe so

**< godzilla889>  
** ugh yea same :/  
i hate gay ppl so much its unreal

**< OikawaSan>  
** WAT.

**< sems>  
** NCSONCSJCK YEAH ME

**< OikawaSan>  
** WHAT THE FUCK U GUYS

**< godzilla889>  
** wat u cant tolerate homophobia?

**< sems>  
** yea oikawa r u gay or smth???

**< OikawaSan>  
** im gonna throw myself off a roof

* * *

There’s a whole week of summer break before the training camp, and Eita plans to spend it lazing around eating snacks and getting sorely out of shape.

His brother has other ideas.

“I don’t want to go!”

“Damn it, Eita, let go of the fridge!” Iwao lets go of Eita momentarily only to grab him around the waist again and pull. “You need to get out of the house!”

“I’ll be out of the house all next week!” Eita tries to tighten his hold on the fridge door, but his grip is slowly slipping. “Just let me have my ice pops, please!”

For a moment, it seems like Iwao is going to give up.

Then he grabs at Eita’s stomach and Eita, surprised and sensitive, gasps and kicks out, letting go of the fridge to grab at Iwao’s hands.

A second later, he realises his mistake as Iwao shouts, “ _ Yes _ !” and finally manages to pull Eita free from the fridge, the door slamming shut on its own as Iwao hauls Eita, yelling and struggling, out of the kitchen and toward the front door.

“I’m not going fucking  _ camping _ !”

“We’re going  _ together _ ,” Iwao says, and somehow manages to get the door open with his foot. He pushes it open all the way and carries Eita outside, not even giving him a chance to grab his shoes.

The next thing Eita knows, he’s being deposited into the passenger seat of Iwao’s old, beat-up Jeep.

“Don’t worry, I already packed for you,” Iwao says, grinning.

Eita scowls. “Fuck you,” he spits. He crosses his arms and slumps down in the seat.

“I’ll just go grab your shoes,” Iwao says. Eita refuses to look at him. “And then we can go grab your friends.”

Eita spares him half a glance through his bangs. “‘My friends’?”

“Yeah, your, uh, volleyball friends. The ones who don’t go to school with you?”

“ _ You invited Oikawa and Iwaizumi _ ?”

“No, but I’m sure they’ll come anyway.” Iwao closes the car door and heads back toward the house.

Eita stares after him, incredulous.

**< sems>  
** my brother is fuckin kidnapping me  
& he wants u guys 2 come ig

**< godzilla889>  
** w.what

**< sems>  
** u heard me

**< godzilla889>  
** where is he taking u???

**< sems>  
** hh  
camping

**< OikawaSan>  
** oh yr going camping!???

**< sems>  
** :/ ya

**< OikawaSan>  
** pls… i will go i miss campinggg  
i havent gone in years (T_T)

**< godzilla889>  
** shittykawa. u cant invite yrself

**< OikawaSan>  
** no semichans brother already invited us apparently

**< sems>  
** this was supposed 2 b my week OFF  
i was gonna SLEEP. and eat ICE POPS all day

**< godzilla889>  
** is yr brother serious abt wanting us 2 go

**< sems>  
** yea

**< OikawaSan>  
** my parents r out of town for like 2 weeks so…….....  
lemme get u my address uwu

**< godzilla889>  
** i doubt my dad wld care  
how long?

**< sems>  
** a whole fucking week.

**< OikawaSan>  
** a whole week in th wilderness w 2 other gays..  
idk semichan think u can handle it?

**< sems>  
** 4 gays

**< godzilla889>  
** YR BROTHERS GAY 2?  
ok i can definitely go then

**< OikawaSan>  
** IFKDSMF OK ME AS A PARENT.  
u can only go out w yr friend if their guardian is gay.

**< sems>  
** ok my moms bi 2 but like  
thats NOT th point  
the point is i dont want. to go  
but he litrlly carried me out 2 the car WITHOUT MY SHOES.

**< godzilla889>  
** do u not like camping?

**< sems>  
** no we used 2 go all th time  
im just like :/ lazy now

**< OikawaSan>  
** sjfnskjdfj yea mood but also  
my plans 4 this week were to go to the like . local gym and just serve practice sooo

**< godzilla889>  
** dont u FUCKING dare this is a REST WEEK.

**< OikawaSan>  
** ok but also . if i dont keep practicing constantly.. ill never get any better

**< godzilla889>  
** semi thank god 4 your brother bc otherwise oikawa wld b killing himself this week

**< sems>  
** ;___; i rly dontttttttt wanna go

**< OikawaSan>  
** he wont REALLY make u then right?

**< sems>  
** well no  
but like :/ idk i dont wanna go but also i lowkey.. camping w u guys sounds fun..

**< godzilla889>  
** ok so r we going then?

**< sems>  
** :/  
ya

The driver’s side door slams shut and Iwao sighs, sinking low into the seat. He looks at Eita out of the corner of his eye and smirks.

“How are my friends supposed to fit in this piece of junk?” Eita asks.

Iwao places a hand over his heart and feigns being shot. “ _ Ouch _ . Hit me where it hurts, huh?” Eita doesn’t get it, but Iwao is practically in love with this car. “...So, that means you asked them? And they’re coming?”

“Fuck off,” Eita grumbles, but he copies Iwaizumi and Oikawa’s home addresses into Google anyways.

“You know,” Iwao says once they’ve started driving, “you’ve gotten a lot mouthier since I last visited. I sure hope it’s not because of any bad influence from these new friends of yours.”

Eita goes to kick his feet up on the dash but Iwao slaps his ankles away without even looking. “I don’t know why you’re surprised.”

“No, no, high school’s a whole different world, I get it.” Even though Iwao refuses to take his eyes off the road for even a second, Eita feels like he’s being watched. “So how come you’re closer to kids from a school who supposedly hates you than your own teammates?”

Eita chews on his lip, doesn’t answer.

Truthfully, he’s trying. He talks to his teammates and his classmates, and considers himself pretty close with Tendou and even Ushijima-kun at this point, but there’s just something  _ more _ with Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Maybe it’s the sexuality thing? Half their conversations are just jokes about boys and making fun of each other, and it feels more  _ comfortable _ . ...So, it’s probably the sexuality thing.

“Hey,” Eita says.

Iwao gives a questioning hum.

“I’m gay.”

Eita goes flying forward and hits his forehead on the dashboard as Iwao slams on the breaks.

“Holy shit!”

Eita groans and peels his face off the dash, looking up at the traffic lights to see them waving in the wind, red.

“They just  _ changed _ ?” Iwao is gesturing wildly. “It was on yellow for like  _ 2 seconds _ , what the hell!” He runs a hand through his hair and sighs slowly, not driving again even when the light turns back to green. There’s nobody behind them, so it’s fine. “Is your head okay?”

“I’m not concussed from your piece of trash car,” Eita says.

“Are you sure?” Iwao reaches out and feels Eita’s forehead with the back of his hand, as though he’s checking for a fever. “The impact didn’t turn you straight, or anything?”

“Oh, my god, shut  _ up _ !”

* * *

Oikawa is much more well-behaved than Eita had expected him to be, but Iwaizumi assures him, as soon as Iwao is out of earshot, that it’s just a ruse.

“He’s  _ dying _ to be a dick,” he says. Oikawa shouts something in indignation, but doesn’t  _ really _ deny it. “I’ll give him one day.”

With a glare, Oikawa kicks Iwaizumi’s duffle bag.

“Twelve hours,” Iwaizumi amends.

* * *

It takes Oikawa approximately eleven hours and forty-two minutes before he snaps and calls Iwaizumi a “dense shithead” while they’re taking a hiking break to eat a snack. Iwao spits out his juice and laughs, and some of it gets on Eita’s face.

Eita rubs at the stickiness with his sleeve while Oikawa and Iwaizumi bicker, Iwao watching like it’s some sort of comedy show.

Eita isn’t sure how he expected Iwao to react to his friends, but it certainly wasn’t like this (though, looking back, he doesn’t know  _ why _ he didn’t think Iwao would be acting like this, so accepting of and casual with his friends).

* * *

They do campfires every night, and Eita slowly redevelops his aversion to Western-style pancakes (as they’re one of the only things Iwao can make decently, which means it’s what they eat every morning for breakfast). The nights are cold, and Eita knows Oikawa’s waking every morning with a knot in his back (because he keeps stretching his neck and rubbing at it when he thinks nobody is looking), and it rains three out of seven days, but nobody complains.

Well, nobody complains about  _ that _ , but Oikawa and Iwao certainly do a lot of complaining  _ in general _ .

Eita thinks that’s okay, though. He hasn’t been camping since his first year in middle school, and he certainly never went with friends. It was always just he and Iwao and Kaa-san, and then just he and Iwao.

With friends, camping seems more lively, more like it used to be when he was little and only cared about finding worms after a rain or how many fruit snacks he could eat in one sitting without getting sick. It’s more fun. Comfortable.

When Eita wakes up on the day they’re supposed to go home, early, and sees Iwaizumi and Oikawa curled up alongside Eita and his still-sleeping brother, his heart swells.

* * *

The training camp this year is interesting. Washijou-sensei has started to get more serious about training the current first years up for next year, which means the second and third years, on top of practicing on their own, are being paired up with first years to help  _ them _ . Ushijima is one of the only players who Washijou-sensei leaves alone.

Tendou gets paired with a middle blocker who seems his exact opposite. His name is Kawanishi Taichi, and though he’s still fairly short, he’s the tallest first year middle blocker they have. He doesn’t seem to care for Tendou’s jokes and taunts, and Eita doesn’t think he’s heard him speak more than once since the start of the school year.

Eita himself is paired with a subdued first year as well, except in  _ his _ case, the kid is snarky and, quite frankly, kind of an asshole. And Eita tries (he really does, because they’re teammates so they’re supposed to get along or  _ at the very least _ be able to work together), but Shirabu-kun just looks at him through half-lidded eyes and calls him ‘senpai’ with a lazy drawl that shows he means nothing of the usual respect behind the word, and Eita thinks he’s going to snap by the end of the week.

“One of these days, I’m seriously going to snap,” Eita says on the second day, and slams his locker shut.

Tendou ruffles a hand in Eita’s wet hair. “Now, now, Semisemi, I’m sure everything is going to be fine.”

“No,” Eita says. “I’m gonna lose it.”

Ushijima shuts his own locker beside Tendou’s and looks at them curiously. “Because of Shirabu-kun?”

“Yes!” Eita grabs his hair with his own hand, effectively pushing Tendou’s away, and pulls. The pain does little to relieve his stress. “He’s just so-  _ augh _ , you know?” When his friends don’t say anything (Ushijima genuinely not knowing what Eita’s getting at and Tendou just enjoying this), he continues, “It’s like he has no respect, and then he goes and flaunts it!”

“Maybe you haven’t done anything to earn his respect,” Ushijima offers.

Tendou snorts. “Yeah, Semisemi, maybe you should serve a volleyball into his face; that’ll show him.”

Eita puts his face in his hands and groans. He’s so, so glad that he waited until everyone else had cleared out of the locker room to let that out. “You know what? Maybe I will.”

“You won’t,” Ushijima says.

“Do it, you won’t,” Tendou says in a half-parrot.

“Don’t seriously encourage him,” Oohira says from the second row of lockers. Eita had almost forgotten he was still here. “You  _ know _ he will.”

“Or I could corner him in the supply closet and knock some sense into him,” Eita mutters darkly.

This one really gets a laugh out of Tendou, while Ushijima watches them disapprovingly.

Oohira closes his own locker and hoists himself up by the tops of the locker shelf to look down at them. “You wouldn’t,” he says, and it’s not a joke, not a taunt. “You want to  _ actually _ earn his respect.”

Eita crosses his arms and huffs. “Whatever.”

Tendou laughs and pokes at Eita’s arms. “Ha! Tsuntsun Semisemi makes a reappearance, huh?”

Eita scrunches up his nose and scowls.

* * *

He doesn’t serve a ball into Shirabu-kun’s face, or knock him around in the supply closet, but the next day, during their first practice game, Eita makes sure to pull out all the stops; dumps, extra-fast quicks, sets that fit perfectly in each spiker’s hand, positioned just to their liking. It’s everything Eita knows a setter is supposed to be.

He  _ forces _ himself not to look at Shirabu-kun once during the whole game, just hoping he’s making some sort of progress with the kid.

Afterwards, once their side’s won, Ushijima pats Eita on the shoulder and says, “You played a good game, Semi.”

Eita pauses a moment to blink in surprise before turning and saying, “Oh, thanks. You too.” Ushijima doesn’t give out praise lightly.

“Satori should be putting as much effort into practice games as you do,” Ushijima continues.

Where he’s been talking to Ejiri, Tendou turns around and sputters.

Eita has to crack a smile.

* * *

“ _ Lion King _ time!” Tendou snatches the remote and aims it at the TV, flipping backwards through the movie list to the  _ L _ section.

“We’ve watched  _ The Lion King _ twice already,” Soekawa-kun says, and pushes at Tendou’s side gently with a socked foot. He’s only recently been hanging out with the other second years on the volleyball team, after Washijou-sensei bumped him up to second string during the training camp. He’s a strong blocker and a solid force in reasoning, and Eita’s quickly grown to appreciate him in the short time they’ve been really playing together (read: since he started playing with them a week and a half ago).

“Three times never hurt anyone,” Tendou says, but Yamagata takes the remote from his hands before he can make them all watch another round of heart-wrenching lion action.

“A  _ Lion King _ break never hurt anyone, either,” he says, not unkindly but still with a bit of snark.

Tendou leans backwards with a groan, letting his arms and head rest across Eita’s legs.

They end up choosing an older film with a lot of themes around friendship and found-family. It’s foreign, and Eita doesn’t recognise it, but it’s still fun to watch, still something that resonates with him, if only a little bit.

When the end credits roll, Eita’s squished between Oohira and Yamagata (Oohira sleeping with his head on Eita’s shoulder and Yamagata having been on his phone for the last half-hour, much to Tendou’s dismay (as Yamagata had been the one to choose the movie, and if he was just going to be on his phone, Tendou reasoned, then they should have just watched  _ The Lion King _ again)) with Tendou still half-lying across his lap, Ushijima and Soekawa-kun sitting together on the second couch.

Tendou rolls his head so that he’s looking up at Eita and grins. “Semisemi.”

“What?” Eita whispers back.

“Hi.” Tendou’s smile widens.

“Hi,” Eita says. “Why are we whispering?”

“Don’t wanna wake sleeping beauty.” Tendou gestures at Oohira, and Eita has to pin down his laughter before it has a chance to start, because it’ll be loud. Then Tendou sits up abruptly and nearly hits Eita in the face with the top of his head.

Eita rears back, and Yamagata starts, too, and Tendou just looks at them through soft eyes before hauling himself off the couch and stretching. “Well,” he says, “I’m gonna go to bed. Early practice tomorrow, and all.”

“It’s only nine,” Ushijima says from the other couch. “You’d be okay staying up later.”

“Oh, wow, what’s this? Wakatoshi himself encouraging someone to stay up past their bedtime?”

“Go to bed, Tendou,” Yamagata laughs. “If you keep being loud, you’ll wake up Reon.”

Tendou salutes, then turns to walk back to his room. He pauses in the doorway from the lounge, though, to glance over his shoulder at the rest of them, still curled up on the couch. “Eita-kun?”

“Oh.” Eita gentle pushes Oohira back so that his head is resting on the couch and not Eita’s shoulder. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

They walk back to their room in silence, but it’s comfortable. Once Eita’s dressed down into his pyjamas, he falls asleep fast.

* * *

“Here’s what I don’t get.” Oikawa waves his fork around, somehow managing to keep the cake from falling off the end of it. “People complain about those tropes being used over and over and over again, but they still go and watch the movie! Like bro, if you hate it so much, just don’t watch it?”

“Maybe they’re hoping that the next time they watch something about childhood friends falling in love it’ll be executed well,” Eita guesses. Beside him, Suga-kun nods sagely.

“Tropes like that aren’t necessarily  _ bad _ ,” Suga-kun says, “just overused.”

“Or written by somebody who doesn’t understand realistic relationships,” Eita says.

“Yeah, like-” Suga-kun pauses to sip at his water and get his thoughts in order. “I read a book that was the whole ‘childhood friends move in together and realise they’ve been in love and start dating’ thing, but with two girls? And it was  _ amazing _ . I can’t read books anymore and enjoy them, it was that good.”

Oikawa hums.

They’re back at the cafe they’d met up at before, finally hanging out again. Eita’s slowly becoming more comfortable with Suga-kun, and there’s less pressure for him to put up a front now (was he putting one up before? Eita didn’t think he was, but now he finds that he’s letting himself fall into patterns and habits that he usually only engages in when he’s alone, at home, or with his closest friends (Iwaizumi and Oikawa)).

Over the past month, they’ve hung out every Sunday. So far, Eita’s learned that Suga-kun likes red velvet cake, he loves his ramen super spicy, he excels at science subjects, and his determination to be a pillar of support for those he cares about often leaves Eita feeling winded.

Oikawa takes another bite of chocolate cake. “Tell me, Sugawara-chan-”

(“I told you guys, just ‘Suga’ is fine.”)

“-Suga-chan,” Oikawa amends, “would  _ you _ date your childhood friend?”

“Oh,  _ god _ .” Suga-kun puts his face in his hands and laughs. “God,  _ no _ . We stopped being friends for a  _ very _ good reason. The  _ last _ thing I’d want to do is date her.”

Oikawa hums, then puts his fork down. “What about you, Semi-chan? Would you date your childhood friend?”

“Would  _ you _ ?”

Oikawa chokes on nothing. “Would I date  _ Iwa-chan _ ?”

Suga-kun guffaws.

“ _ Would _ you?” Eita pushes his own cake to the side to lean across the table. “He’s got good arms, right? You wouldn’t date someone with good arms?”

“Oh, my god…” Now it’s Oikawa’s turn to bury his face in his hands. “Stop putting this images in my head, Semi!”

Eita leans back in his chair and laughs.

* * *

Eita follows Ejiri down the hall, trying to hide how nervous he is about being on the third-year floor of the dorm. They don’t run into anyone else, and it’s not that different from the second- and first-year floors except that their lounge is larger and the cork boards along the walls have up drawings and personal reminders and university pamphlets instead of sign-up sheets for study groups and calendars counting down to breaks.

The doors are covered with wrapping paper and white boards and stickers, too; it’s bright compared to Eita’s floor, where the doors are empty except for the room numbers and occasional sign people sometimes hang on their door to remind everyone else who lives where.

Ejiri stops in front of a door covered in shiny silvery wrapping paper and torn multi-coloured streamers. “Here we are!” he says, and then somehow finds the doorknob in the mess of streamers.

His room is emptier than Eita had thought it would be. There’s a laptop on one of the desks, and a shelf with figurines and a couple of chapter books on it, but other than that, it just looks like a standard, bare dorm room. Even the bedspreads are plain.

It’s certainly not what Eita expected to be in a room with such a bright door.

“Sorry it’s so empty.” Ejiri sits down on his bed. “My roommate’s kind of freaking out and starting to move out already? There’s still months left of high school, but he’s  _ insisting _ that he needs to get out as soon as possible, so… Everything left is mine, except his bed.”

Eita sets his maths textbook and notebook down on Ejiri’s bed and sits, his materials between them. “Yeah… I thought your room would be more… uh… full?”

“It  _ used _ to be, but all the posters and decorations and shit were Mika’s.” Ejiri lies back on his bed with a sigh. “Ugh, okay… Show me the maths that’s been giving you such a rough time.”

Ejiri sits back up and Eita opens his textbook to a section toward the back, the one full of triangles. “I hate this so much,” Eita says. “When am I  _ ever _ gonna need this after high school? Triangles…”

Eita takes out the sheet he’s supposed to be doing for homework, too, and passes that to Ejiri.

Ejiri looks over the sheet with a frown. “Oh, I remember these. Trig is  _ stupid _ , but I can explain it to you better than they do in class. Here.” He reaches across the gap between his bed and a desk and grabs for a couple of pencils.

For the next half of an hour, Ejiri tries to explain triangles to Eita. And some of it actually does start to make sense, but most of it is lost on him.

Eita covers his face with his hands and groans. “Ugh, let’s face it; I’m not a maths guy.”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it! It’s not for everyone.”

Eita groans again.

Ejiri chuckles and reaches out a hand toward Eita’s head, presumably to rustle his hair, but then his cell phone starts ringing. With a start, Ejiri scrambles for it, apologising to Eita quickly before checking the caller ID and stepping out into the hall.

For five minutes, Eita sits in silence and continues to work on the problem he’s stuck on. He doesn’t get very far.

When Ejiri comes back, he looks a little tense. “Sorry,” he says, sitting back down on the bed, “that was my girlfriend; I had to take it.”

“Ah, okay.” Eita’s still stuck on the problem.

* * *

**< sems>  
** he has a GIRLFRIEND.

**< godzilla889>  
** yr date senpai?

**< sems>  
** yea

**< OikawaSan>  
** o semi im sry

**< sems>  
** ITS FINE I DONT RLY CARE ITS JUST LIKE . OMG.

**< godzilla889>  
** straight rights i guess

**< OikawaSan>  
** homophobia never sleeps huh

**< godzilla889>  
** this is god telling u 2 stop crushin on upperclassmen

**< sems>  
** SHDNNS??

* * *

**< OikawaSan>  
** guess wtf time it is gays

**< godzilla889>  
** 6am. go 2 bed.

**< OikawaSan>  
** no  
anyway . spring tourny~~!

**< sems>  
** tourny.

**< OikawaSan>  
** tournemant.

**< godzilla889>  
** tournemant.

**< OikawaSan>  
**(︶︿︶)_╭∩╮  
u KNO wat im saying.

**< sems>  
** no i dnt  
pls enlighten me oikawa wat is a tournemant

**< OikawaSan>  
** this is OUTRAGOSEU  
sugachan doesnt do this 2 me.

**< godzilla889>  
** go talk 2 sugachan abt this then  
its 6am i want to SLEEP

**< sems>  
** bro just turn yr phone on silent bro

**< godzilla889>  
** it IS on silent. vibrate. whatever

**< OikawaSan>  
** yea w/e  
semi u r NOT going to nationals this time.

**< sems>  
** >;3c

**< godzilla889>  
** o that. i do not like that.  
2 much like oikawas faces

**< OikawaSan>  
** WHAT

**< sems>  
** LMAO FSNFJN

**< OikawaSan>  
** MY FACE IS BEAUTIFUFL FUCFK U IWA

**< godzilla889** >  
not YOUR face DUMASS  
YR STUPID TEXT FACES

**< sems>  
** U MEAN KAOMOJIS?

**< godzilla889>  
** is THAT WAT THYR CALLED?

**< OikawaSan>  
** omg.

**< godzilla889** >  
shut up.

* * *

Before the last game in the Spring High Regional Finals, Eita runs to the bathroom. He’s so nervous, he feels as though his heart is going to beat out of his chest and his palms are sweaty. It’s a wonder he hasn’t gotten his uniform wet with how much he’s wiped his hands on it.

Oikawa is in the bathroom, too, scowling at his reflection in the mirror. With the game so close to starting, the bathroom is empty save for them.

“Oikawa-” Eita cuts himself off, unsure of what to say. But then Oikawa turns to look at him, uncertainty on his own face, and Eita coughs and says, “Uh, I thought you had practice?”

Oikawa huffs a sigh and turns to full face Eita. He wipes his palms together as though dusting them off before placing his hands on his hips. “It’s not mandatory… Besides, I wanted to come see Ushiwaka get his ass kicked with my own eyes.”

Eita thinks back to what he’s seen of Datekou in previous matches, about their collection of insanely tall first and second years, of their excellent blocking skills. Sure, they’re tall, but Wakatoshi is taller, and Eita’s had to block his spikes before himself. He doesn’t doubt that they’ll win today.

Regardless, he says, “I see.”

Oikawa keeps looking at him through a level gaze. After a beat of silence, his face softens and he asks, “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah!” Eita’s answer comes a little too fast, a little too reassuringly. “I’m just nervous; you know how it is.”

“Yeah, well, don’t be; you’ll do great, okay? I may hate your team and your stupid ace, but I know a good setter when I see one.” Oikawa strides past Eita toward the door, stops beside him for a second and claps a hand firmly on Eita’s shoulder. “Pull a dump out there for me, ‘kay?”

Eita doesn’t turn back around until he hears the door swing shut.

He finds his palms are no longer sweating.

* * *

Halfway through the fourth set, Eita tosses to Wakatoshi. It’s a good toss; a great one, really, perfect for Wakatoshi to spike through Datekou’s terrifying wall. All Eita’s thinking about now is winning this match, tossing to the spikers, showing his potential and skill to every person in the stadium, to everyone watching the game. He’s not thinking at all about keeping good form when he comes down from the jump toss.

When Wakatoshi’s hand makes contact with the ball, Eita lands and immediately crumbles to the ground as pain shoots through his right ankle.

Wakatoshi’s spike hits the floor on the other side of the net, and there’s cheering, but it’s quickly drowned out as Eita’s team clusters around him. Everyone looks concerned, Satori and Wakatoshi the most so, and Eita lets Satori pull him to his feet as Washijou-sensei hurries over.

Eita’s vision swims, and his ears are ringing too much for him to make out anything that anyone is saying, and- god, why does his ankle hurt so much? It shouldn’t hurt this bad, not when he still has to finish this set, not when they still have all the games for Nationals just within reach-

Satori’s arm around Eita’s waist is replaced by Reon’s, and Eita barely hears Washijou-sensei calling Shirabu-kun over and instructing Reon to take Eita down to the infirmary. Eita goes when Reon starts leading him off the court.

He does his best to clear his head as he walks - limps, really - down the hall. He’s never been to the infirmary here before, and he hopes they’re quick about this. All Eita wants to do is get back out there and finish the game.

“Worst case scenario,” Reon says, “is that you sprained it. There’s no way you could have broken it from something like that.”

Eita just nods, says, “Yeah, I know.” His mind isn’t even on his ankle; all he can think of right now is getting back on the court.

The nurse in the infirmary speaks to Eita gently. She has him take off his sock and shoe and inspects his ankle, presses at different areas and asks him if it hurts more when she does.

“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong,” she says while Eita pulls his sock back on. “But you should sit out until the pain secedes, and if it continues for more than fifteen minutes, I’d recommend getting in to see a doctor to check it out.”

Eita nods, only half listening. His mind is stuck spinning on ‘sit out’.

Reon guides him back to the gym and explains the situation to Washijou-sensei, though Eita’s sure he could explain it himself at this point. He just landed wrong and it hurt, like when he sometimes jumps off his bed or a rock or something and hits the ground weirdly. That’s never hurt for this  _ long _ , though.

Eita sits on the bench and watches.

He has to admit, Shirabu-kun  _ is _ a great setter (and,  _ of course _ he is, he did come to Shiratorizawa, after all). His technique is, though a bit lacking, still excellent. Eita wonders why Shirabu-kun wasn’t specifically scouted by Washijou-sensei, why he instead took the hard route and came to Shiratorizawa through the general entrance exam. He clearly has the skills, and while he is lackluster as a setter, he obviously knows what he’s doing.

On court, Shirabu-kun sets the ball and Wakatoshi spikes, scoring the winning point.

Eita stands up with the rest of his teammates to cheer, grabbing onto Hayato’s shoulder to hold himself up without the use of his ankle as he screams his throat raw. Hayato turns and pulls Eita into a hug, looping his arms around Eita’s waist so that he doesn’t fall. Eita hugs back, feeling like crying.

He didn’t even help score that winning point, and his ankle is still screaming at him in sharp, hot pain, but Eita’s heart is soaring because he played, and this match twisted and wrung him dry, and he knows Oikawa’s watching, and- god, they’re going to Nationals again.

* * *

Washijou-sensei takes Eita to the hospital personally after the game, concerned about why his ankle is  _ still _ hurting. Eita himself is starting to worry, even though he  _ knows _ it’s not broken. He leans his forehead against the passenger window of the car and watches buildings and scenery pass by in the dark. Beside him, Washijou-sensei focuses on the road.

Now that they’re out of the gym, Eita’s brain has calmed down. His thoughts aren’t spinning, and he feels more down to earth. The only sound in the car is the quiet thrum of the engine. Eita’s phone, which he knows has to have blown up with messages by now, is still in his bag, which Satori had been in charge of taking back to their dorm room.

Washijou-sensei breaks the silence when they come to a red light. “It’s probably a sprain.”

“Yeah.” Eita hopes it’s not. He hopes it’s nothing, that he really did just land awkwardly and the pain just stuck around longer than usual.

He hopes, but then they get in to see a doctor, and he sees the swelling and knows his hope is wrong.

The doctor gives Eita an ice pack for the ride back to school and gives him easy instructions on how to take care of the sprain. She also bandages up his ankle and fits him with a brace, and gives him a pair of crutches to use until the pain subsides.

The ride back to Shiratorizawa is silent again. In his head, Eita curses himself for making such a stupid, avoidable mistake. He knows he’ll only be out for three weeks at the most, but this is literally the worst possible time for him to get injured.

Eita sighs, quiet but heavy, and turns to again stare out the window.

* * *

**< sems>  
** i sprained my ankle :)

**< godzilla889>  
** there is so much passive aggressiveness in that smiley

**< OikawaSan>  
** id guessed…

**< godzilla889>  
** youd GUESSED?  
wat r u their crazy middleblocker? lmao..

**< sems>  
** yea oikawa came n watched  
saw me land like an IDIOT

**< OikawaSan>  
** yo.. dont sweat it we all fuck up landings sometimes

**< godzilla889>  
** u went 2 watch? i thought u said u didnt wanna go

**< sems>  
** not THIS badly

**< OikawaSan>  
** i changed my mind  
had 2 b a good friend and support semichan yknow

**< godzilla889>  
** smh invite me next time

**< sems>  
** u cldve come u didnt need an invitation

**< godzilla889>  
** oikawa and i AGREED tho that we werent gonna go

**< sems>  
** WOW

**< godzilla889>  
** WE WERE SPOSED 2 B RESTING OR AT PRACTICE..

**< OikawaSan>  
** OK WELL i went anyway  
w/e semichan i wouldnt sweat it too much  
sprains heal fast

**< sems>  
** i cant even go to practice im T_T  
this is SO sad

**< godzilla889>  
** it wont put u 2 far back tho  
youre a good setter youll b fine

**< OikawaSan>  
** yea! n*tionals isnt for a couple of months anyway

**< sems>  
** y is nationals censored

**< OikawaSan>  
** woah um. 😳 ok. tag your slurs

**< godzilla889>  
** NATIOANSL IS A SLUR?

**< sems>  
** only 2 ppl whove never been

**< OikawaSan>  
** ok hardblocks semi

**< sems>  
** hardblocks oikawa first

**< godzilla889>  
** y r u guys always blockng each other.  
y does this always happen.

* * *

Eita’s ankle heals well enough after only nine days, and then he’s able to practice again. It’s a relief to step back into the gym, change in the locker room and hold a volleyball again.

The team is busy running drills on serves and receives to prepare for Nationals. On his first day back, Eita spends a whole hour and a half doing nothing but serves. It’s a complete pain in the ass, especially when Hayato, just coming back from a water break, jumps in and receives the best jump serve Eita’s pulled all day, but his chest feels full and his heart is soaring at just being able to  _ play _ .

They hold practice games against each other, too. Eita’ll admit, it’s fun to set against Shirabu-kun, watch the younger boy’s brain work to keep up with Eita’s plays. It means he gets to show off, too.

* * *

**Pretty Setter Squad ;P** >  
_ December 11, 20xx at 1:42 PM _

**< sugakou>  
** would you guys ever want to hang out with other 2nd year setters?  
other than us i mean

**< sems>  
** do u know more?

**< sugakou>  
** theres moniwa kaname from datekou  
weve talked a couple of times, hes pretty nice

**< OikawaSan>  
** moniwachan.. whats his ig

**< sems>  
** oikawa do not stalk his account i am begging u

**< sugakou>  
** let me check hold on

**< OikawaSan>  
** “stalk his account” smh who do u take me for semichan  
im not a BRUTE

**< sems>  
** ok but w sugakun u literlally  
watever

**< OikawaSan>  
** -_-

**< sugakou>  
** @dtk2  
is his user

**< OikawaSan>  
** o he has a lot of selfies hold on

**< sems>  
** o my god.

**< sugakou>  
** lol

**< OikawaSan>  
** hes pretty  
u can add him if u want sugachan  
o he can come 2 our library date!!!!!!!!!!!

**< sems>  
** y do u hav 2 call them dates  
none of us our dating n its litrlly just studying

**< sugakou>  
** study date

**< dtk2>  
** Hi!

**< OikawaSan>  
** OMG  
r u moniwasan

**< sems>  
** hello

**< dtk2>  
** I am yes  
Suga-kun said this was a 2nd-year Miyagi setter groupchat?

**< sems>  
** yeah pretty much

**< OikawaSan>  
** hello moniwasan i am oikawa toorusan of aoba johsai

**< sugakou>  
** Dont let oikawa intimidate you moniwakun

**< sems>  
** yea hes all talk  
big softy

**< OikawaSan>  
** (•ˋ _ ˊ•)

**< sems>  
** im semi eita  
from shiratorizawa

**< dtk2>  
** It’s nice to meet u both!  
I see suga-kun already introduced me earlier lol

**< sugakou>  
** were going to the local library at 4 today if u want to come moniwakun?  
just to do homework and stuff

**< OikawaSan>  
** im bringin cards tho bc like .. i get bored

**< sems>  
** ok same except i dont get bored i just hate maths lmao

**< OikawaSan>  
** do your hw sir

**< sems>  
** hm

**< dtk2>  
** Oh sure! I don’t have practice today so  
And semi-san if you need help with maths in your guy

**< sems>  
** tysm moniwasan sir

* * *

“Is everyone ready for tomorrow morning?” Satori asks, setting down his tray on the table and proceeding to fall into the seat next to Eita with a huff.

Wakatoshi pauses with his spoon halfway to his mouth and says, “You can never be  _ too _ prepared.”

Eita pokes at his curry with his spoon. “I’m a little nervous,” he admits. “Still kinda worried about the time I missed with my ankle.”

“That was weeks ago,” Wakatoshi states simply, and then resumes eating.

“We have faith in you, Semisemi,” Satori says. He slaps Eita’s shoulder, a little too rough but nothing Eita isn’t used to. “A week out of commission isn’t gonna hold you back too much.” Wakatoshi looks like he wants to say something, but his mouth is full so Satori keeps talking. “Or at all, really. You play just fine in practice, so…”

Eita isn’t sure when his friends started being so sure in him, or when he established himself as a reliable and sturdy kind of setter over a strong and impulsive one, but he isn’t going to fight it. “Thanks,” he says, and goes back to his lunch.

* * *

🏐🏐🏐  
 _January 17, 20xx at 7:15 AM_

**< OikawaSan>  
** good luck semi  
hate your school but i hope U do well

**< sems>  
** ty….  
im rly nervous which is STUUUUPIDDDDDD bc ive been here like 3 times b4  
but dam

**< OikawaSan>  
** i dotn usually do this but its barely 7am so idc so um  
id b nervous too  
its nationals? theres like . 50 other teams id b crying lol

**< sems>  
** CRYING. ok me

**< OikawaSan>  
** but yea u HAVE done this before so . youll b fine!  
just deep breaths yknow? me&iwachan will watch later if we catch a break uwu

**< sems>  
** o god dont say that im gonna b MORE nervous

**< godzilla889>  
** youll be fine dude just pretend youre back in miyagi

* * *

🏐🏐🏐  
 _January 19, 20xx at 1:39 PM_

**< sems>  
** omg im gonna CRY  
we still have another match today what the hell

**< godzilla889>  
** ANOTHER????  
WTF??

**< sems>  
** lmao yea day 3 is like . hell  
we didnt make it this far before tho

**< godzilla889>  
** fucking congrats but also . rip your legs..

**< sems>  
** rip my ARMS

**< OikawaSan>  
** I ONLY CAUGHT LIKE 5MIN BTU I SAW THAT RECEIVE  
R U GOOD???????

**< godzilla889>  
** god that #7 had some crazy serves

**< sems>  
** YEA! HE DID!  
im dead + hayatos got som NASTY bruise

**< OikawaSan>  
** i hav maths but good LUCK semi…

**< godzilla899>  
** yea omg good lcuk u got this

**< sems>  
** ty….  
good luck in maths

* * *

They’re in the middle of the second set of the quarter-finals when Eita makes the conscious decision to set to Ejiri instead of Wakatoshi, even though Wakatoshi is in the perfect position for a straight with only one blocker. But Ejiri is  _ right there _ , starting a run-up from the back, inconspicuous from behind Eita and Chisaka-senpai with his shorter stature.

So Eita doesn’t set to Wakatoshi, and Wakatoshi still jumps. The other team’s blocker jumps with him, and the other two stay on Chisaka-senpai, who jumps right after Wakatoshi.

The ball connects with Eita’s fingertips and he sends it flying toward the back, high and with a steady toss. Ejiri spikes it and it goes over, just barely missing the other team’s libero as it hits the court with a resounding  _ smack _ .

Eita lands - neatly - and feels a bubble of something (pride? Excitement?) swell up in his chest.

The bubble bursts when Washijou-sensei calls them a timeout.

There shouldn’t be a reason to call a timeout right now; they’d scored the point, morale was high, and nobody was injured. As Eita walks across the court toward their coach, a ball of dread uncoils in his gut.

Once everyone’s circled around Washijou-sensei, he clears his throat and says, “Kenjirou.”

Shirabu-kun straightens, eyes bright and curious.

“You’ll be setting for the rest of this match.”

“Yes,” Shirabu-kun says.

For a split second, Eita’s heart stops beating. Time stops. Beneath his feet, the floor disappears.

But only for Eita.

Washijou-sensei is saying something else, briefly going over their playing strategy again and reminding everyone to play up their own and their teammates’ strengths. He addresses Wakatoshi’s place as their ace, as the backbone of the team, his voice leaving no room for argument, and the words hit Eita like a second punch to the gut.

Ah. So  _ that _ had been his mistake, then.

Across the circle of players, Satori meets Eita’s eyes, but Eita looks away quickly, his face hot and his chest tight with anger and something else, something burning and rotten.

The whistle blows and the team returns to the court and warm-up area; Eita’s feet stay rooted to the ground for three seconds too long before he follows Hayato and Kawasaki-san over to the warm-up area, where he knows he won’t be switched back in.

* * *

Shirabu-kun wins them the quarter-finals.

Shiratorizawa cheers and the team grabs each other in a tight group hug.

Even with Ejiri and Wakatoshi and Reon’s arms around his shoulders, against his back, Eita still feels that sick, rolling bitterness.

* * *

“ _ They switched you out? _ ”

“It’s so stupid,” Eita grumbles into the phone. “And it’s  _ stupid _ that I feel this bad, but fucking-” He cuts himself off and stares down into his cup of now-cold tea. The woman at the counter had offered to refill it several times, but stopped asking around eleven. Twenty minutes ago. “I played my heart out on that court, sprained my ankle, drilled on serves and receives for  _ hours _ , for  _ this _ ?”

“ _ You have a right to be angry _ .” Oikawa sounds sure of himself, and there’s no bite or laughter to his words. “ _ I’d be pissed if coach switched me out mid-match just because I made a toss he disapproved of. I mean, it’s  _ one toss _ , and you were way in the lead anyway, so who cares? _ ”

Eita sighs. Around him, the silence of the hotel’s caf é is deafening. “I don’t think it was just one toss,” he says.

“ _ What do you mean? _ ”

“I-” Eita feels heat at the back of his eyes and stops himself. “I’ll tell you about it tomorrow, or when I get back. Sorry, I’m- It’s late, I should-”

“ _ Yeah! _ ” Oikawa interrupts, and Eita’s glad he understands, despite his lack of eloquence. “ _ Yeah, yeah; of course. I’ve got class tomorrow, and it’s, like, almost midnight, so… _ ”

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“ _ Good night, Semi _ .”

The line goes dead before Eita can say ‘good night’ back, and he’s left alone with his cold tea and the woman at the counter and that dark, sinking feeling.

* * *

Shirabu-kun starts their match the next day, and Eita watches from the warm-up box, feeling incredibly small. They lose, but it does nothing to crush the sharp, dark feelings in Eita’s gut.

* * *

“Geez, Eita-kun, it’s freezing out here.” Satori sits down next to Eita on the bench, shoulders pushed up to his ears and scarf wrapped up over his nose.

Eita just hums, ignores Satori and focuses on sketching the outside of the volleyball gym. Right now, he’s just trying to focus on drawing, not thinking about volleyball or his club friends or Nationals.

“You’re not moping this time.”

This time, Eita graces him with a real response: “I’m not sad.”

“Oooh.” Satori leans into Eita’s space, blocking his view of the gym. “You’re angry.”

Eita blinks, his focus on the half-finished scene in his sketchbook shattering. “I’m not angry,” he says. He’s not sure if he believes himself.

Satori blinks up at him. “Aren’t you, though? I’d be angry if I got switched out like that and didn’t get to go back in.” He pauses and sits back. “You’re shaking.”

Eita looks down at his hands, clenched tight on the sides of his sketchbook, trembling. “Oh,” he says. “I am.”

“Yes,” Satori says back. “You are.”

“No, I mean- Not  _ shaking _ but… maybe I  _ am _ angry.” Eita forces himself to think back on those last two matches, that sharp, hot feeling in his chest and gut and limbs. Being angry would make  _ sense _ ; he’d worked hard for that position as Shiratorizawa’s starting setter, done his very best in every game he’s played since he started high school. But when he thinks about Wahijou-sensei, and Wakatoshi, and his teammates, all he can feel is guilt.

Satori hums and says, as though he can read Eita’s mind, “You’re angry at yourself.”

Eita untightens his fists and says, “Yeah.”

* * *

Eita doesn’t want to go to lunch.

He wants to skip volleyball, too, and had almost let himself sleep through morning practice, but that would have felt like a forfeit (although he supposes he’s already lost, hasn’t he?).

So he goes to lunch, gets a sandwich and rice and juice, sits at their usual table and lets Satori steal his pudding. Nobody says anything - or, they  _ do _ , but they don’t talk about what Eita knows they’re all thinking of every time they look at him now - but Reon gives him a look with pitying eyes and Hayato bumps their knees together beneath the table a couple of times.

Eita feels like screaming.

He’d been called into Washijou-sensei’s office on their first day back to regular practice and had been told, in a solid tone without a hint of sympathy, that Shirabu-kun would be taking over his place as Shiratorizawa’s starting setter. Eita had taken it, had said ‘yes’ and ‘of course’ and had bowed politely before leaving, had pretended that he didn’t mind all throughout practice. But later, when he’d been alone in the locker room, the last to leave, Eita had slumped down with his back against the wall and let himself cry.

He thinks maybe Wakatoshi knows about that, but he hasn’t said anything. Eita knows that Wakatoshi’s logical, that he’s able to look at volleyball objectively; it’s a dog eat dog kind of thing, where only the strongest can remain on the court.

Still, it hurts.

Eita’s friends are avoiding talking about volleyball completely. It feels… evasive, like they’re avoiding it for Eita’s sake (and they are, he  _ knows _ they are).

“So,” Satori drawls, leaning against Eita and waving his pudding spoon around. “Now that the third years are gone, who do you think is gonna make the new starting line-up?”

Reon gives Satori a look that he probably thinks Eita doesn’t see and Hayato accidentally kicks Eita in the ankle.

Satori pretends not to notice Reon’s look while Wakatoshi continues to munch on his broccoli. “Probably Kawanishi-kun,” he says once he’s swallowed. “Hayato will be switched in as a regular as well.”

He doesn’t say anything about Shirabu-kun, and Eita guesses it’s probably because Washijou-sensei had made Shirabu-kun’s new place as a regular pretty clear already.

“Uhm-” Hayato starts, but Eita interrupts him.

“What?” he asks, pushes Satori off of himself and cracks open the cap on his apple juice. “Aren’t we done pretending that if we talk about volleyball I’m gonna have a breakdown or something?”

Hayato and Reon stare at him while Satori chokes on his pudding, trying not to laugh. Wakatoshi doesn’t say anything.

“I’m not  _ dumb _ ,” Eita goes on. “And I’m not fragile. I’m not gonna break just because I’m not on first string anymore and you guys wanna talk about volleyball. It’s not like I can’t still  _ play _ or something.”

“Eita’s right,” Wakatoshi says, and a beat of silence follows. “You’ve been dancing around the situation. But Eita’s a strong player, and a strong person; he can grow from this.”

“ _ Thank _ you,” Eita says.

The conversation turns back to who they think will be starting next year, but Eita doesn’t miss the apologetic look Reon sends him.

* * *

**Pretty Setter Squad  
** #general

**oikawasan  
** ok gamers i hav a question

**Moniwa !!  
** ??

**oikawasan  
** so if i were to  
hypothetically  
hav a crush on som1

**semichan~ <3  
** its iwaizumi.

**oikawasan  
** I SAID HYPOTHETICALLY???

**semichan~ <3  
** change my name back b4 i leave

**oikawasan  
** \+ even if i was being srs y would i like iwachan lol

**sugawarachan  
** what was your q oikawa

**oikawasan  
** ok so  
how do u kno if som1 likes u

**semichan~ <3  
** its iwaizumi

**Moniwa !!  
** I don’t think there’s a definite way to tell

**sugawarachan  
** oo are you thinking about confessing?

**oikawasan  
** no  
this is all hypothetical remembr?

**semichan~ <3  
**

**sugawarachan  
** what is THAT

**oikawasan  
** SEMI.

**Moniwa !!  
** IS THAT YOGHURT CAT???

**semichan~ <3  
** oikawa i stg  
just ask him out.  
u r ridiculousssssss

* * *

Oikawa sets a brown paper bag down on the table with a flourish. “I brought snacks!”

“Oh, thank god.” Moniwa-kun reaches for the bag immediately, dropping his textbook onto the table with a heavy  _ thump _ . “I haven’t eaten in, like, four hours, and I’m dying. Bless you, Oikawa-kun…”

Eita looks over from where he and Suga have been quizzing each other with English flashcards for the past half hour. “What’d you bring?” he asks.

“Milk bread, cookies, and chocolate,” Oikawa says with a grin.

Suga groans. “Ah, so everything we aren’t supposed to eat in excess as athletes; amazing.” His tone is chiding, but he still reaches for the bag with just as much enthusiasm as Moniwa-kun had.

“Grab me two cookies,” Eita says. Then he looks to Oikawa and says, “This is why you were late, huh? Not because of Iwaizumi or anything?”

Oikawa pouts. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Dude,” Eita says, and he goes to say more, but then Suga comes back over with cookies and a chocolate bar for himself, and his attention is pulled back to studying for their English exams.

* * *

🏐🏐🏐

**oikawasan  
** my exams!! finally finished!!

**semi  
** i still hav 2 more..

**oikawasan  
** im litrlly so happy i might cry  
i hate tests

**iwaizumi  
** i finished my maths test like 45min early  
sat there bored out of my MIND

**semi  
** way 2 flex  
my maths final is in like  
GHNNGNNNGNGNG 5MIN.

**oikawasan  
** omg .. good luck

**semi  
** and then i hav japanese lit at 3 oh god

**iwaizumi  
** do u still hav volleyball today

**oikawasan  
** we dont (￣︶￣;)

**semi  
** i do not

**iwaizumi  
** excellent  
u wanna come get food w us when u finish  
2 celebrate no more exams

**semi  
** PLEASE.  
im so ready for breakkkkk

**oikawasan  
** yea mood i hate my classmates rn lol

**iwaizumi  
** hanamaki is in your class tho

**oikawasan  
** ok yea? and?  
iwachan dont screenshot that

**iwaizumi  
** oops

**semi  
** omg.. drama

**oikawasan  
** plot twist where discord starts notifying u wen somebody screenshots like snapchat does

**semi  
** i would die

**iwaizumi  
** w.what do u mean

**oikawasan  
** pls dont screenshot me  
im not rly this mean i dont need to be doxxed on instagram

**semi  
** who said i was screenshotting  _ you _

**iwaizumi  
** what r u like. screenshotting your teammates and blackmailing them or smth

**semi  
** yes  


**oikawasan  
** and u just SCREENSHOTTED THAT?

**iwaizumi  
** did u send that to taichikun

**semi  
** NO IM NOT THAT MEAN  
i sent it to hayato  
and HE sent it 2 taichikun

**oikawasan  
** omg???  
pls dont pull that on me

**semi  
** wat would i even do screenshot u shittalking wakatoshi and send it to the team server?

**iwaizumi  
** please do that.

**oikawasan  
** PLEASE DONT DO THAT I DONT WANNA GET JUMPED

**semi  
** Y WOULD UG ET JUMPED???  
WHO DO U THINK IS ON MY TEAM???

* * *

“Answer my texts over break!” Satori says. “ _ Especially _ you, Eita; you completely ghosted us last time!”

Eita doesn’t look up from where he’s busy messaging Iwao, a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth. “Not true,” he says. “Remember when we all got ice cream even though it was only eight degrees out? I went to that.”

When Satori gives him a meaningful look, Eita adds, “It’s just two weeks, anyway; we’ll all be together again before we know it.”

Satori looks like he’s going to argue, but then his dad honks the horn of his car and he turns, starts jogging away from Eita and Reon. “Text me!” Satori calls over his shoulder; Hayato salutes and Eita just gives him a thumbs up.

Not twenty seconds later, Eita’s phone starts buzzing incessantly.

“Oh, my  _ god _ -” He pulls it back out of his pocket to see thirteen Discord notifications from Satori. “He’s going to kill me.”

Hayato pulls his own lollipop out of his mouth and gestures toward Eita’s phone with it. “Only if you don’t answer those.”

Eita barks out a laugh and puts his phone away. “I’ll answer them,” he promises. “I’ll unmute the team chat, too-”

“ _ You muted it _ ?” Hayato’s voice drops to a hurried whisper. “ _ Dude _ , oh, my god. I wish that were me, you completely missed Reon’s three in the morning history breakdown during the week before exams.”

“No,” Eita says, “I didn’t miss that. That’s the reason I muted the chat, actually.”

Hayato snorts.

“Seriously, though,” Eita says. “I won’t disappear for two weeks. Promise.” Then he hoists his own duffle bag up onto his shoulder, gives Hayato a friendly hi-five, and starts walking out into the parking lot to find Iwao’s car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is the Mental Health Chapter™; it's going to have some heavier themes dealing with self-worth, anxiety, and eating disorders (AKA the first 5 months of my senior year ε-(´・｀) ). Just a heads-up. I'll put another warning for that in the beginning notes of chapter 3. I'm hoping the next chapter isn't as much of a monster as this one, but I guess we'll see
> 
> Also shout out to my friend Vio gaymutual for editing the transparent yoghurt cat.. 😔✌
> 
> If anyone wants to hmu, my tumblr is @bokuakaz now


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